LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 336, 31 July 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Masterton resident this week dug some new potatoes which had been grown in a sheltered spot. They were planted in the month of March.

In response to a pastoral issued by the Bishop of Auckland, special collections in aid of the Maori Mission will be taken up at St. John’s church on Sundav next.

Our readers are reminded of the unreserved sale of secondhand furniture to N be h-Hd by Messrs Lawson, Swain and Walker at their Mart to-morrow. Particulars are advertised in this issue.

A notice appears in this issue from the Plumbers’ Board of New Zealand dealing with the conditions under which plumbers can apply for registration under the Plumbers’ Registration Act. The following ladies will represent Kihikihi in a match against Ohaupo : Mesdames Wade and Graham, Misses Hendrickson (2), Walker (2), McCardle (2), Montefiore, Savage and Corbov. The back-blocks roading problem was referred to by the Prime Minister when he was opening the A. and P. Societies’ Conference. Mr Massey remarked that for some time settlement -had gone ahead of roading. Roading was now several years behind, and the Government had determined to ask Parliament for a special loan for the making and the improvement of roads. The people engaged in the dairying industry must be assisted by means of better roads, to get their produce to the factories and the railways. Now that the annual bonus is being paid out by the dairy companies, it is interesting to find out how our dairy herds in this neighbourhood have done for the year. We (Stratford Post) inspected the return to-day of a small supplier to the Midhirst factory, who milks 22 cows on 65 acres near Stratford. The milk returns were £325 I2s. 6d (equal to £l4 14s per cow), while the calves and pigs netted £5417s 6d, equal to an extra £1 ios. per cow, making the total returns per cow £l6 4s. The herd is all grade Shorthorn. The above is certainly a surprising example of what good farming will do, and a plain answer to those who have doubts about the high value of lands in the neighbourhood of Stratford for dairying.

Speaking at a farewell social to Mr A. Brown at Midhirst (Taranaki), Mr R. Dingle said that for the past two years MiBrown had been dairying on 34 acres of land, four acres of which were standing bush, so that he had only 30 acres available for grazing. From these 30 acres he had taken £240 a year, equal to £8 an acre. Mr Dingle went on to say that in New Zealand 1,680,000 acres of land were used for dairying, and if each acre could be made to produce £8 the total export of butter and cheese would be close on £r3,000,000 per annum. If Mr Brown could produce £8 an acre anyone else could. Mr Dingle advised young farmers who found themselves with too large an area to farm thoroughly, to sell a portion and devote greater attention to the cultivation of the balance.

Mr . Kendncic ana Mr E. J. Bray, jewellers, notify that they will not be responsiole tor anv goods which may have been left for repair after six months.

Several amusing incidents crept into the Fire Brigade practice last Wednesday. At one time the men were lined up to receive certain instructions, atur which, with nozzles in their hands, they were despatched post haste to play the water from two leads of hose. One gang, in their hurry, attached the nozzle to a disconnected hose, and stood prepared to play havoc with the imaginary fire. It was the laugh of the bystanders that directed the firemen’s attention to the wasted flow ueiching from the nozzleless hose near by. Another fireman, with the spray nozzle held over his uead, stood as under an umbrella —until the pressure was reduced. He wants no further instruction in the proper manipulation of this pifticular nozzle. Later in the day a dog charged one of the branchrnen, but a 1251 b pressure direct from an inch nozzle checked its career and sent the animal spinning over the paddock. Of course the inevitable small boy was much in evidence, and very possibly some of the “ well washed ’’ youngsters upon reaching home were given cause to wish that they had never heard of a fire brigade “ wet practice.”