JOTTINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume 90, Issue 14052, 3 May 1919, Page 7

JOTTINGS.

Mr Grant H. Mackley, a well-known railway official, who has been stationed recently in the Auckland section, has resigned from the service, in order to lake up the position of organising secretary for tiie North Auckland Farmers' Union. ••The hedgehog in many respects is the farmers’ friend,” declared Dr. G. M. Anderson at a meeting, of the North canterbury Acclimatisation Society. No doubt, lie said,, it caused a destruction of eggs and amongst chickens in cases, but on the other hand it ace an enormous number of slugs anil grubs. However, Dr Anderson admitted that there might be other reasons weighing against the hedgehog. Late estimates put the wheat yield from the United Slates at 1)18,920,000 bushels for 1918. A proclamation lias been issued giving a preliminary guarantee of 9s 2d a bushel for wheat produced in 1919, but it is announced that i commission will sit before the barvest to inquire into the cost of promotion, and if necessary the guarantee may be increased. When the last mail loft seeding for winter wheat had begun and it is predicted that the acreage would be the largest on record. During a discussion at Hastings on Saturday on the inadequacy of the meat space allotted to Hawke’s Bay to the middle of May, one speaker said that the only thing the farmers could do was to let the English people know, through the Press Association, that Kiev have six million carcases here bought at 5d per lb., and that Argentine meat is being sold in England at Is 2d per lb. A strong deputation was appointed to proceed to Wellington ;n support of the resolutions. The meeting also appointed two farmers to gi' ( evidence before the Industries Commission.

Mr Pacey's Appreciation— The late managing-director of the New Zealand Dairy Association, Mr 11. E. Paccy, who severed his connec lion with tile association this weekvii a circular lo the staff, sets out thai some of them had been associated with him in the Dairy Association fO" nearly a generation, and most of them for considerable periods. lie said farewell to them with feelings of reai regret. "Amongst the staff of the association I have found many good friends —friends who have stood by me through all the vicissitudes of the business and whose able and loyal help lias materially assisted in making tin association one of the most conspicuous industrial successes in the Dominion; indeed almost all of you have contributed thereto your full nuota ol loyalty and ability." In closing, Mr Pacey states as his belief that the dairy industry would, within the next decade or so, show greater progress and development than has been known in the past. The Meat Trust —

Producers in New Zealand will be Interested to read the following- note from the Westminster Garette of 22m February last, on the working- of the Meat Trust: "The explanations of the Pood Controller about the transactions with the American meat Trust would he absolutely convincing if wo 'had no knowledge or other facts. The pie\urc painted for us is that of a Government department squeezing down prides and making good bargains. Whence, then, came the enormous profits —far beyond the most golden dreams of the packers before the war—'hat have been made by the Trust? The simple fact is, and no amount of official explanation will alter it, that in the dealings with the Government the Meat Trust always had the upper hand. !r. commanded supplies and held the \ilied Governments to ransom. That •act is fully set out in the report of an nvesiigalion ordered by the Presideni ~r the United States. Why, then should the Food Controller's Department he so anxious to conceal the truth? The -Meat Trust remains at the end of the war a bigger problem for i.he world to face than it was before the war." Soldiers' Settlement — The returned soldiers" settlement scheme was criticised at the annual meeting of the Palmerston North U.S.A. last week. According to Mr 11. • M. Haycock, the Government would no*, authorise the acquisition by soldiers o: and in the Falmerston district because, ; was high-priced. II was practically useless for soldiers to try to get tin Government to purchase any farm il. Hie: district on this at tint. A change in Wellington was necessary among some of the Departmental heads, who were out of sympathy with presentday methods of fanning. They failed to realise that it was far heller to put soldiers on high-priced, but good, land, in the Manawatu than to aettlc them on iimic of the poor-quality Waikalo land. He considered that the association should protest against the present administration of the soldiers' settlement scheme. The president, Mr H. .1. Jacobs, spoke of the unsatisfactory and long- delays on the part of the Government in ratifying purchases of land |-.y soldiers, and of the unreasonable insistence on soldiers depositing at least ."> per cent, of the purchase money. 11 was decided to forward a strong protest to the Department along tin' lines indicated. The subject was also touched on in the annual report of the Dannevirke lie turned Soldiers' Association, in the course of which il was remarked that much of the hindering and inconvenience in connection with settling returned men on Hie land was due to the absence of men on the land hoards and in the Department possessing practical interests in the se'dicrs. The association intends to press far adequate repreeeo-

talion on till I,ho laml boards, including the band Purchase Hoard. 11 was also mentioned at the annual meeting of the Dannevirke body that Government assistance to soldier’s in obtaining dwellings in town had been a dismal failure. In only one or two instances had grants been obtained, as compared with ten or twelve cases where applicants could not purchase properties owing to Government valuation being too low.