NEWS AND NOTES.

Waikato Independent, Volume VI, Issue 393, 4 July 1907, Page 3

NEWS AND NOTES.

A Wairarapa farmer has been offered £4. a ton for his crop of hay this season, and 4s 6cl a bushel for his wheat crop. A lengthy meeting of Cabinet was held on Friday. The Premier, interviewed later, stated that it had been decided to re-appoint the Hons. Bigg and Jenkinson to the Legislative Council, and that a redistribufcon of portfolios would be arranged in a day or two. Mr F. B. Bussell, who was until recently a member of the London Board of Director's of t'he New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Ltd., has been appointed, the Company's chief inspector for New Zealand. Mr Bussell has arrived in Wellington, and takes up his duties immediately. A sister of Major von Tempsky recently paid a visit to the battlefield of Te Ngutu o te Manu, where the distinguished Prussian lost his life in action against Titokowarus men. During her visit she was presented with a greenstone axe, which was dug out of the ground near the spot where her brother was killed. During the month of June the Government grader at Auckland passed through his hands 4516 bales of flax weighing 760 tons. This is an increase of 189 tons on the quantity dealt with in June, last year. The value of the flax exported last month may be given as approximately £19,760.

In some parts of the Baglan district the edible flower of the kiekie is out. The tawhara usually appears first in the early spring, and is in full bloom about November. It is supposed that the kiekie has missed flowering a year, and partly that and partly the warm autumn may .have caused it to bloom out of season.

A curiosity in tomato plants is mentioned in the Feilding Star, the product of cultivation by Mr Towler, of Fielding, who has grown a. new kind of tomato. They are about the size of a large plum, red, round, and of exquisite flavor. Unlike the ordinary tomato, fchey do not grow in bunches, but in rows along the branches, while they are very prolific, and the production per plant is enormous. The tomato has been named " Towler's. Beauty," and it richly deserves the title. Begarding the price of bread, the executive of the Dunedin Independent Political Labor League has issued a manifesto pointing out that a system, depending on private enterprise to supply the needs of the community, never can be satisfactory to the workers. Like the Trades Council, the executive is of opinion that the only remedy is State control or municipal control, and what the members have to consider is how to bring this about. It is pointed out that during the past fifteen years wages had only increased by 8£- per cent., or Is Bcl in the pound, but during the same period the cost of living had gone up 60 per cent, or 6s in the pound.

An extraordinary story of football enthusiasm comes from Sheffield. A youth who was suffering from rapid consumption, and was aware that his end was near, anxious to see the cup final, travelled from Sheffield to London on April 27. He witnessed the victory of his favorite team, and then went home. Retiring to his bed on getting home early on Sunday morning! he asked his mother to place the Sheffield Wednesday colors close to him where he could see them. This she did. '' lam glad I lived to see good old Sheffield on Wednesday win the f cup again," he said, and then, with wonderful calmess, the colors of the club near him, he waited the end, which came on Sunday night. Mr J, G. McMillan, the Victorian Government cheese expert, told the Conference of Australian Butter Factories Managers' Association at Melbourne on May 23 that though the output of cheese had increased in Victoria during recent years, there should now be 8000 tons produced annually instead of 2000. People were generally surprised to find that Victorian cheese was equal to the New Zealand product; in fact, the local article was often sold as New Zealand cheese. The reason for this was that there was a duty of 3d per lb on the New Zealand product, and shopkeepers qbktained the extra price by fraudulent pract'ces. He advised cheese'manufacturers to brand their goods conspicuously, so that the public would not be deceived. Large areas of native land in the Upper Wanganui district are about to be opened up in accordance with the progressive policy decided upon by the Aotea Maori Land Board, of which Mr T. W. Fisher, Under-Secretary for Native Affairs, is president. Mr Fisher has just returned to Wellington after spending some days in the Wanganui district, in connection with the throwing open of about 30,000 acres of land for settlement. The Morekuu No. 2 block, consisting of 14,066 acres, which is intersected by the Pipiriki-Baetihi coach road has been cut up into areas ranging from 340 to 750 acres, and will be 1 offered for tender next

month. The Taurakira block and the balance of the Onotu block, 15,921 acres * in all, will also be thrown open at the same time.