BUSINESS NOTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 143, 20 June 1939, Page 11

BUSINESS NOTES

88 ACRES MODEL FARM A first-class freehold of 88 acres is offered for immediately sale-by Messrs. C. L. Duigan and Company, land agents, Wanganui. Good six-roomed residence and necessary buildings; 15 paddocks. Everything in first-class order. This is a rare opportunity to get a really good farm at a reasonable price.

The rights of county ratepayers under the Valuation of Land Act are as follow: —

Every ratepayer has the right to object to his new valuation and objections are heard before an Assessment Court (the date of the sitting of which is later advertised). The objections may be withdrawn without charge at any time before the Court sits or during the sitting of the Court. The Assessment Court will either Increase, decrease or allow the valuations to stand. If the ratepayer is dissatisfied with the ruling of the Assessment Court, he may offer his land per medium of the Valuer-Gen-eral to the Government at what he considers a fair price. Such an offer is an irrevocable offer and the Crown may buy the land at that figure or sell it to a third person at any time thereafter if it does not purchase it at the time. The Valuer-General, it dissatisfied with the ruling of the Assessment Court, may also give the ratepayer 30 days' notice that he consider.- a certain sum a fair valuation and, if the ratepayer is not agreeable to this valuation, the Valuer-Gen-eral may, at the expiration of a further 30 days if an agreement is not come to between the Valuer- General and the ratepayer, purchase the land at that figure.

Since the I.W.S. News first drew attention to the rapidly increasing number of women who are wearing trousers, a careful check has been made on Press interest in relation to this subject. It has been discovered that in the past three months alone, £28,000 worth of newspaper space has been devoted to reporting news aoout women's trousers. The Secretariat's showing of new wool trouser models and the production of a special wool trouser booklet should do much to augment tile growing demand which retailers are reporting Manufacturers with an eye to new maikcls will find that the trouser field fo? women is hardly touched as yet and has immense possibilities lor wool fabrics. Tha International Wool Secretariat will be glad to advise any interested manufacturers on style, publicity and merchandise possibilities. Following information in this column, of some little time ago, the following lettei- from the Department of Labour, Wellington, is given in full:— "With reference to a recent interview regarding the department's scheme No. 48, 1 am appending hereunder brief details of the scheme to enable you to circularise your branches as you intend for the purpose of giving publicity to the benefits which can be obtained. "The scheme provides for the payment of a subsidy up to a maximum of 75 per cent, of the actual labour cost of developmental work which would not otherwise be carried out. This includes cutting of compact areas of scrub, rush-grubbing, slumping and

logging, draining, clearing of noxious weeds, sub-divisional fencing and other work which would increase the carrying capacity. "The work must be done on a cooperative contract basis by registered and eligible unemployed workers who must be paid the full contract price in the first instance, the farmer later being reimbursed to the extent of the approved subsidy. The farmer is required to make his own arrangements for the workers’ accident insurance and it is desired that he should also provide tools, transport and suitable accommodation. “The necessary application forms can be obtained from ail branches of the Social Security Department and the district employment officer at the four main centres. The application, when completed, should be forwarded to the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the district, who will arrange for the necessary report on the proposed work, and on approval of a subsidy the men will be allocated by the above offices, in every case, of course, a formal approval of a subsidy is forwarded to the farmer and until this is

received he must on no account commence the work. “If there are any further points on which you require information, I shall he only too pleased to advise you.” It is understood that the department quite approves of arrangements being made for the men to camp in tents. Di*. C. M. Blow, of the Wool Industries Research Association, Leeds, has recently recorded the results of experiments in the rubberising of yarns carried out at Torridon over the last two years. By suitable chemical treatment it has been found possible to deposit an extremely fine layer of rubber on the surface of wool fibres when treated in yarn form. This is not designed to waterproof the yarn or to confer water repellancy on a fabric, as is frequently assumed from the term rubberising. The method confers certain additional properties such as greater, strength and durability on the yarn without appreciably altering handle or the wool-like quality of the yarn. It offers, moreover, the possibility of producing yarns at considerably lower twist to he employed, with consequent increase in fullness. Striking improvements have been demonstrated in the weaving properties of knitted garments made from rubberised yarns together with prolonged retention of the original surface characters of the fabric. The method is applicable also to carpets and abrasion tests of a pile fabric have shown how the tendency for loose fibres to be shed is greatly decreased, the fibres wearing evenly from the surface. A Scottish manufacturer has found that the use of, rubberised yarn in the making of high’ quality coating material is of great value in preserving the surface character of the fabric for greatly extended periods. Experiments are now in progress to determine additional applications of the new method to dress and novelty fabrics, beach wear and furnishing.

In view of the more important things, the province will not take a leading part in noxious weeds this year except the distribution of gorse weevils to every financial member in the province. The weevil will be forwarded from I he Cawthorn Institute at the end of September. Revision of the road transport

schedule rates is to be discussed between the operators (carriers) and the users (mainly the Farmers’ Union and the freezing works) at a meeting to be held in the near future. The presentative on the Dominion Executive of the West Coast, Nelson and Marlborough Provinces of the New Zealand Farmers' Union was in Wanganui last Wednesday and Thursday and addressed a meeting at Wanganui and one at Marton. From two such widely separated fields as the United States Army and the Witwatersrand gold mines of South Africa comes further medical opinion of the special protective properties of wool. The United States Army authorities are at present testing a new blue uniform designed to replace the existing khaki service dress. The new uniform like the old, must be made of all wool, of which not less than 65 per cent, must be new wool. The army authorities have, in addition, specified that army shirts must be all wool—even this is striking—when intended for use in tropical climates. The United States Army Medical Services are of the opinion that by insisting on the use of wool shirts, the risk of chill and sickness is greatly reduced, especially in those hot climates in which there is a liability to sudden changes in temperature.