HALCOMBE NOTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19247, 26 February 1925, Page 9

HALCOMBE NOTES

(From Our Own Correspondent). We got Is 3d per lb. for January butter-fat, which is as much as the most optimistic expected. Last year for the same month the company paid Is 7d, and for January, 1923, Is sd. The amount of butter manufactured at the Makino factory for January was 215| tons, which is more by one and a-half tons than for the corresponding month last year. The average grade for the month was 93.73. During the last three months the factory machinery has been driven by electric power obtained through the Manawatu-Oroua Power Board, and a comparison in the charges for the corresponding period of last year shows a substantial reduction in costs for electrical energy. Not only is there a considerable saving in the fuel bill effected by the change over, but the supply of current is more reliable and efficient. The directors say that although the London agents have reduced advances against shipments to Is Id per lb., they fixed the advance rate for January butter-fat at Is 3d. And though the butter market in London showed some excitement during last week they are not very optimistic regarding the future. The market will require to be watched very carefully during March, when there will be exceptionally heavy arrivals at Home of New Zealand butter. A team of tennis players of both sexes journeyed to Waituna one day last week, but the weather d ; d not allow of any serious games being played. However, the visitors had some practice, and were treated in the generous manner for which the Waituna people are noted. To-day (Wednesday) the local players are trying their skill against the Tokorangi Clnb, the names being: Mesdames R. Williams and AL James, Misses Blows and Cowdrey, Messrs Mitchell, Worsfold, R. Managh, and L. Williams. The little girl from this district who had a slight attack of infantile paralyi sis, has returned to her home after I spending six weeks in Palmerston I North Hospital. The. child has made ■ a good recovery and no permanent physical disability is anticipated. Darcy Nesbit, the young man whose leg was badly hurt at Kakariki recently, is making a good recovery, and will probably be well again in a month. No bones were broken, but the wound had to be closed by the insertion of forty stitches. The sufferer is a son of Mrs Robinson, who lives just out of Halcombe. Friends of Miss L. Pryor got together a nice lot of presents, and handed them over the other evening at a “kitchen tea,” held at the residence of the young lady’s mother. Eree these lines appear in print Miss Pryor will have changed her name, and Mr Walter Page, who spoke on behalf of her friends, said the number and value of the presents testified to the esteem in which Miss Pryor was held. He expressed the true sentiments of those present when he said he hoped that she would have much happiness and prosperity. Mr Bert Pryor returned thanks for his sister. A Halcombe man says he is not going to travel on the “Limited” again. He was on the train the other evening, intending going to Auckland, but owing to the speed at which the train moved along he “fairly got the wind up,” and dropped off at Taihaj ’. Seems almost funny to hear of anyone becoming nervous at the speed of a New Zealand train. A lady who travelled down on the fast train the other night said she never enjoyed a railway journey more. At the meeting of the Cheltenham Dairy Company’s directors, it was stated that the Manawatu and West Coast Dairy Companies Association, in conjunction with, the Dairy Farmers’ Union, have. invited Mr Grounds, chairman of the Control Board, who has lately returned to New Zealand from a visit to Europe, to address a meeting of dairymen at Palmerston North about the second week in March. The directors of the Cheltenham Company hope as many suppliers as possible from this district will attend. For about ten days we have been experiencing the delights of a northwesterly gale, which besides being the cause of many cases of “blues,” has done a good deal of damage in gardens and orchards. Apple and pear trees down this way are loaded (or were before the gentle zephyrs started last week), and growers were surprised to hear (vide article in “Chronicle”) that fruit is too dear. Just now Bon Chretian pears arc a drug on the market, first quality fruit being unsaleable at anything more than lid per lb. Apples are as bad, if not worse. Cox’s Orange can be bought by the ton for 2d per lb. When prices come I below those quoted above the grower does not get much out of it. Of course, people should not expect to get from the grower two or three pounds at those prices, which are for case lots, though some consumers have peculiar ideas. For instance, the other day a little boy went to a grower: “Please Mr J., Mother says have you any more of those pears, and will you please send five younds to Mrs , at Inglewood; and please, mother says she’ll pay when father gets work.” You can rely upon this story, because it is not one of mine; it is one of my neighbour’s, and he would scorn to tell a lie. It is a story you could tell to the heathen, and feel that yon were teaching them the truth and doing them good. Perhaps some day this yarn will be given out at all the Sunday schools and moral lessons drawn from it. Anyway, it is a story that a little child could believe, though I don’t suppose many of my readers will. The directors of the local dairy company have intimated to several suppliers who wished to divide their cream between the Cheltenham Co. and other concerns who are endeavouring to obtain supplies, that under no circumstances will the arrangement be acceptable to them. Chaff-cutting has started down this way. though the price offering does not warrant too much being put upon the market. Chaff at £6 used to be thought highly payable—like getting money from home—but nowadays, according to one farmer, it hardly pays to put it into the bags at that price, that is, in cases where a grower has to pay for labour. Sacks alone at present prices (Is sd) cat up £2 per ton. What with free importations from Australia and the reduced demand owing to mechanical vehicles displacing so many horses, the. demand for chaff is not what it was, and it looks like becoming I less. A local Spiritualist tells me spirits speak an almost indistinguishable language. Evidently English as she is “ spook. ”