NEWS AND NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, 4 November 1930, Page 3

NEWS AND NOTES.

ITEMS OF DOLj’J’O?! INTEREST.

The old settlement of Ohiwa, Bay of Plenty, with its hotel, store and school and other weather-beaten build-

ings, so well known to the old-time traveller, has entirely ’disappeared. Since the road to Opotiki has been made around through Wiaamana no effort has boon mode to protect Ohiwa from the sea, and where the township inicij steed there is now a tumbling waste of water. The sea has regained its own.

An interesting illustration of the homing instincts of,'a- thrush is reported from a Matamata farm. The bird had built a nest on the turntable of a two-horse wagon in a she'd. The wagon was lent to a> neighbour to cart sheep to the station and later was used by the owner to cart pigs. The bird remained on the nest the whole time till the town was reached (about live miles from the farm), but it then flew off. The nest was left untouched, and when the farmer returned home he was much surprised to notice the bird waiting to take its place on the nest.

The extraordinary rapid rate at which whitebait grow was evidenced by some specimens and photographs which Mr. D. Hope, curator of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation gardens, showed to a Press representative. The small size of the whitebait

as it reaches the market is well known, yet in a very few weeks the tiny fish attains a length of seven or eight inches and proportionately broad. The growth is most rapid during the first three or four weeks, and in about twelve weeks the whitebait has become the a'dult inanga or common minnow.

Speaking to an Eltham Press representative Mr. A. J. Ward, of Matemateaonga,- stated that in the Omona district wild pigs were to be found in ever-increasing numbers. Much havoc was wrought among lambs on the properties of settlers in the district, and the pigs were becoming such a menace that it was almost impossible to breed and raise lambs. In referring to this extensive mortality among lambs an'd the consequent serious losses to the settlers, Mr. Ward expressed the opinion that the bounty of Is per snout was not only insufficient to encourage hunters, but it was barely enough to meet the expense of ammunition.

English farmers were complaining that there was little to be made on the land, remarked Mr. R. Stewart, of Bunnythorpe, on his return from an organised tour of Great Britain, in which nearly 100 farmers took part. Lan'd seemed cheap, he added. It was possible to buy good property 20 miles from London for £2O or £25 an acre. This was subject to church titles, which seemed to the visitor to be a very unjust impost, amounting to from 5s to 12s fid an acre per annum. Practically all the rates ha.d been removed from lan'd, and were levied on the buildings, the imposts being fairly high. Taxes and rates appeared to be killing the primary producers in England. “The New Zealanders were of rerea plenty or apparently cneap farms,!’ said Mr. Stewart, “but I did not hear of any of the party buying one."

Pheasanta are being destroyed in isioaiei numbers rnan ever Tn tae Wanganui district as the result of the activities of stoats and weasels. One landholder about 10 miles from Wanganui says he found five hen birds last season which he knows were attacked by either stoats or weasels. The animals find the hens easy prey during nesting time.

An Auckland solicitor who motored 300 miles during the week-end has come back with the impression that. Whitianga, in the Mercury Bay district, is a township in a glorious setting. The road leads from Coromandel through . magnificent native bush, an'd there is an exhilaration about the drive that motoring on level country can never bring. At every vantage point there is a fresh vista of bays, beaches, sheltered inlets, and panoramas of the Gulf. There are scenes of the old gold mining days, but these are deserted. There is a rugged splendour in the gorges, streams roar on their rock

bdds, and the narrow road skirts forested hills that slope steeply from great heights.

The Governor-General in a recent address to the Town Planning Institute said he was delighted to find that the Lands Department was turning its systematic attention to scenery preservation, under the able guidance, of Mr. .T, P, Thompson, TTn’der-idocrotary of Lands. He had lately studied the last report on the subject and was to seg fuai ag fogs than 71000 asres were added inat jf !l; in n,,, scenery reservations of the Dominion, and now there were nn fewer than 851 scenery reserves, covering nearly 612,000 aaraa. He thought that was a very CrJdltublo roßnrf.

The preparations being made hy Mr. Norman (“Wizard") Smith for his forthcoming attempt ut the world land speed record o a thfi Ninety-Mile 'Beach, North Auckland, are being kept r'cereL The engine which he is Using is one of the Schneider Cup engines and is capable of a greater speed than that established by the late Sir Henry Begin ye, The chassis will cost a grout deul of money and great care is being taken that it will be capable of performing at the speeds for which the fiftghifi hiiilK 85 fSe Will B 8 - . liyui’t. _vu his visit to New Zealand early in the present veer * * AVizardSmith cvccod

ed this speed by a big margin, but as the timing apparatus had not been bj- ths ZuipXXMkU-VXMaI trolling Board the record could not be recognised.