NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 14 May 1903, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND: GENERAL

The May number of the ' Triad ' contains a large amount of interesting reading matter, and its worth is enhanced by a musical supplement.

The Mayor of Wellington is to have an allowance for the current year of £400. He diaws £300 as member of the House of Representatives, so that he can afford to devote some of his time to public affairs.

Speaking at the Hawke's Bay Christian Convention, Mr Lang, an ex-Indian missionary, is reported to have said that he found heathenism among the young of the outskirts of the Hawke's Bay district as great aa he had seen in India. At a meeting held by parishioners of St. Mary's (says the Nelson ' Colonist ') it was decided that a suitable marble tablet should be placed in St. Mary's Church as a memorial of the late Very Rev Dean Mahoney. The Very Rev. Dean Rolland's numerous friends, by whom anxious inquiries are being constantly made as to his state of health, will (says the ' Inangpiiua Times') be pleased to learn that the rev. gentleman has so far improved that he was permitted to get up for a short time on Sunday last Although extremely weak after his long confinement, he is making good progress towards recovery, and it is hoped that in two or three weeks' time he will be able to leave the hospital. Discussing the small-birds nuisance in Timaru the other day, a member of the Levels County Council said that the birds were becoming more destructive than ever. In the Point district, he said, the winter wheat which had been sown this season had been already very materially damaged through the birds pulling up the grain just as it commenced to sprout. A suggestion was made that the Levels Council should combine with other councils and offer a substantial bonus to the person who can devise the best method of coping with the pest. Regarding the prospects of the poultry industry in the Colony Mr. I). I). Hyde, Government Poultry Expert, says : — ' It takes an average of three acres to keep a, cow. On that area 300 head of poultry can be grown. By careful selection and breeding only from, the best layers, in three years the stock should average 12 dozen eggs a year each. Averaging the price of eggs at a shilling per dozen, and deducting 4s per head a year for food and 3s for interest and labor, it leaves a balance of 5s per head ; equal to £25 an acre, or £75 per annum on the three acres required for the cow. No other stock,, £ for £ invested, will give such results.' It is notable that the growers all over the Colony are now going in for a better class of stock, recognising that it costs no moie to feed first-class birds than the scraggy mongrels heretofore seen on almost every farm. The demand for the utility breeds such as the Orpingtons, Wyandottes, Langshams, and Plymouth Rocks from the • Government farms is the best evidence of this fact. It might also be stated that there was a big increase in the demand for oggs for hatching purposes from the Government poultry stations last season, no less a quantity than 21 000 eggs being supplied, while for breeding stock, the call just now is quite unprecedented, the number available for sale being rapidly distributed.