In the Dominion

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 109, 11 May 1931, Page 6

In the Dominion

Loquat Trees in Bloom. Numbers of Loquat trees in Gisborne are already in blossom, while many others are ready to burst into flower. Orchardists remark that they have seldom noticed loquats bloom so early in the winter, and consider the trees are a month or more ahead of the usual time. The opinion is held by some residents that th ) early blossoming of these trees is an indication of a mild winter, with an almost entire absence of frosts. Baths Appreciated. The fact that the Napier Municipal Baths swimming pool was practically undamaged ’»y the earthquake has caused a good deal of comment since that disastrous day, one of the most likely explanations being that the baths are constructed not upon solid ground, but on shingle, which would provide more elasticity than normal foundations. The presence of the baths was never more fully appreciated than since the earthquake. Not So Many Patients.

The number of patients io the Auckland Hospital has been reduced to about 100 less thar. the average for last year since the board, in the interests oi economy, decided to refuse admission to cases which, in the opinion of the doctors, were fit to be nursed at home. As far as further economics in management arc concerned, the task has been left for the new board, but one or two steps have already been taken. Unnecessary lig its, for instance, have been eliminated, and the wards arc not so bright as formerly.

Maoris Food Supplies. Decreased supplies of oysters and toheroas in some parts of North Auck-, land have been subjects of concern to Maoris, who have found in the shellfish beds valuable supplies of food. An interesting consequence of the efforts of tho northern Natives to conserve the supplies has been an announcement that a Native committee has secured control of the Toatoa and Mainaxu native oyster reserves in the Bay of Islands. The committee already has taken practical steps to meet what is regarded as an urgent situation by deciding to close the beds until April, 1932.

Announcing Correct Time. A novel method of announcing standard time every day is to be put into operation by the Napier commissioner, Mr J. 8. Barton. Recognising that Napier lost all methods of standard time through the earthquake, Mr Barton has arranged for the electric pow’er at the council’s power house to be flashed off and on again, with a period of darkness lasting a moment or two. at eight o’clock every night. The staff of the power house has a rehab'e timepiece, which will be checked from time to time, and it is hoped that it will he possible later on to arrange for a regular electric signal from Maugahao. Western Commercialism.

“Aly observations lead me to believe that there are in the world to day three distinct types,” said Mr T. Z. Koo, at the Optimists’ Club luncheon last week. “There are rhe Hindu uf India whose relationship is between man and God, the Chinese with whom it is between man and man, and the Western races with whom it is between man and nature.” To emphasise his point, Dr. Koo pictured a great waterfall. The Hindu would see in it the power of God. Its beauty would appeal to the Chinese, who would discover in it a place suitable for habitation and meditation. To the Western mind the thought would be of the great amount of power going to waste. Slaughter of Deer.

A Hamilton sportsman who has just returned from a fortnight’s stalking in the Kaimanawa Ranges expressed regret that there was an open season for deer. He said the fact that no shooting fee was charged this year gave irresponsible people a license to shoot deer indiscriminately, irrespective of their age or condition. Parties of young men were met in the heart of the ranges, and two days’ march away from the main r oads. These people appeared to revel in killing as many animals as they could, whether they were deer, wild cattle, sheep or pigs, and did nor trouble to skin their quarry or use them for food. Numerous carcases of young deer and other animals were found.

Crossing the Alps Although the wife of a West Coast miner is claimed to have been the first woman to cross the Alps over the Browning Pass, it was a Maori woman who made the first journey nearly 200 years ago, says the Christchurch bun. Bhe was a mad woman, a member of the Ngatiwairangi tribe, which had lived eu the West Coast, unmolested, for twu and a-half centuries. Wandering over the ranges, she came across Maoris in Canterbury, the Ngaitahu, and showci them greenstone. They had neither known about greenstone nor of the existence of the Ngatiwairangi in West land, apparently. At their request, tie mad woman guided tnem over Bruw i ing’s Pass. They established rommcfLial relations with th 1 West Coast Maoris, buying their gr ins’Me. But bion thev sent wa- parties, wi’h the res.Jt that later, when the white settlers came and her Majesty the Queen purchased 7.500,000 acres M: West Coast land from the Mniris tor £3OG, there were only 110 nativ »s hit Io bign tfic deed of purchase.

Fanning in England. In the course of a Jitter to a New Zealand friend a farmer in Norfolk

gives, for purposes of comparison, some interesting particulars regarding his returns. “I have a dairy of 160 milking cows. he says. “The milk 1 send into Xorwich at Is (id the gallon. This is our mainstay. Wo have been growing sugar beet, a very useful sideline. 1 grew 80 a< res last year and the crop averaged an acre, leaving £l5 per acre profit. Our corn prices are very bad, wheat Ils a sack of IS stone, barley 10s to 26s pei’ sack of 16 stone, oat.« about 7s per sack of 1? stone, all grown lat a big loss to farmers. Land thit was sold in war years at £25 to £3O can be bought to-day at £lO to £l2 an acre. I keep a flock o. 300 black face' ewes and they produced about a lamb and a-half, which wc think a good fall, but sheep that were sold last June as lambs up to 50s and 60s are now sold as fat at 75s to 85s, leai ing no protit to the grower. Dairy cows arc worth to £4O, young horses to £BO, good two ami three shear ewes about £6 to £B, ami pigs about 13s per stone when fat. Wages are 100 per cent above pre-war level.’’