GENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2364, 3 December 1908, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

A consignment cvf lacewing flies have been received!, by tlie Agricultural Department from Inspector Head, -who was sent to the Cook Croup to •report upon the fruit industry there. The insects have proved very effective natural enemies to many of the smaller forms of injurious insect. pests, especially in different species oi aphides. The flies have done good work in controlling the black aphis, which at the present time is proving a troublesome pest in Hawke’s Bay orchards, and t'he Government pomolocist, Mr W. A. Boucher, proposes that a portion, of the consignment shall be liberated 1 in that locality. In California., in conjunction with the native ladybirds, they have a very effective check on the woolly aphis of the apple, so that, altogether, they should- prove a valuable acquisition if they can be established in the Dominion. T'he executive of the National Dairy Association lias passed a resolution protesting against the xe-gis.-tration fees jiroposed- to be charged under the dairy regulations, and asks that the maximum fee should not be more than 5s for over twenty cows nor more than 2s 6d for under twenty cows, and further asks that provision should be made for a board of .appeal consisting of one person nominated by the Chief Inspector of Stock and one person nominated by the dairymen, and that any dairyman should have the right to appeal to •such arbitrators on any matter arising out of the regulations. The executive also passed a resolution expressing its high appreciation of Mr -Gilrutli's services .anti its sincere regret at his departure, with a hope that he will find free scope in his new •office for “the undoubted ability displayed by him as chief of the veterinary ’division.” An American student of economics, Mr. A. B, Leckenby, is at present staying at the Central Hotel, Auckland, says the “Star.” He was much interested in the recent Parliament-

y.f ary elections, and speaks in enthusiastic terms of the healthy, wholesome interest displayed by the people, and the utter absence of any of those scenes and evidences of coercion and intrigue which so often characterise elections in the United States. “Oui politicians say that it would be disgraceful to see women vote,” said Mr. Leckenby; “but there was nothing disgraceful about last Tuesdayh. voting. It was a revelation to me, and 1 stood- outside the “Star” office on Tuesday night, and I enjoyed ii fine. I waited till the very last result was posted, and I never sawbelore such intense interest and enthusiasm, combined with good order, displayed by an election crowd.” When jurymen are applying for exemption from duty their attitxide to the judge is usually as conciliatory and politely persuasive as the circumstance makes politic. -But at Auckland last Monday, according to the “Auckland Star,” a- reluctant juror adopted the argumentative attitude. With confidence in his voice he informed the Judge that he wanted to be excused, as he was -a grocer without any assistance, not even a wife to bfvhl the counter against liis return. Whereupon lie had preiorce to put up his shutters before repairing to Court. “My ease is one in a thousand,” he announced, with an air of one who had settled the wliolo business. “You .Certainly know how to blow your own trumpet. How long have you been in this business?” inquired the Judge. “Eighteen months. And I am making my fortune, of course, although 1 can’t afford to take a week oft, returned the gi'ocer. “Well, in spite of your impudence, I will let you A&ff. You can go.” And the storekeeper departed, looking eloquent thoughts. The Hon. Lady Forster, of Ballymascanlan House, County Louth, who died in May, daughter of the second Baron Plunket, Bishop of Tuam, Ivullata ,aud Aclionry, left personal estate in the United Kingdom valued at £40,113. By her will, dated February 13, 1901, the testatrix leit £2OOO to her cousin, William Lee, fifth Baron Plunket, to repay the, losses his father, the late Archbishop oPj9uhl.in, incurred in building the Cathedral at Tuam, £IOOO to the Representative Church Body of Ireland for the Sustentation Fund, of the parish of Ballymore, co. Monaghan, ■in memorv of her father, and £IOOO to the said Representative Church Body of Ireland for the Sustentation Fund. The -residue of her estate, subject to other provisions, the testatrix left upon trust for her two sisters or the survivors of them, and she directed that, should any person benefiting under her will become a .member of the Roman Catholic Ch-iji'ch, the share of such person should be paid to the Representative Church Body of Ireland.

Sphere are still ia few tradesmen arriving at Wellington, whoso callings are but little .practised in New Zealand, if practised at .all, while others .arrive whose trades or professions arc already overstocked. Clerks, linen weavers, and gasmeter makers iaro laxnongst the latest instances, and batches of carpenters and joiners have found a sluggish labor market. There is, however, still .an undiminislrn^demand for farm laborers. Mr M’Keowen, of the men’s employment branch of the Labor Department, told a “Post” reporter that ho had placed several competent men on farms lately. At present the department could place good laborers at pick and shovel work on the Gisborne and Seddon railway lines, but •not a great many were .required 1 . Of the Ruapehu’s immigrants, very few have called on the Labor Department. The probability is that most of them had friends .and relations in New .Zealand to whom they hastened- ‘-♦Twenty-five have placed their names on the hooks of the departiment. Amongst them were six carpenters and joiners, one coaclibuilder, ~ two clerks, one engine-driver and one boilermaker, one market gardener, on© shop assistant-,' two tinsmiths, one patteaa maker, one gasmeter maker, eix form laborers and a 'number of general laborers. The farm hands were placed immediately, except in cases where difficulty was experienced in getting them to take the work. .South African farm hands have. been noticeable amongst recent arrivals; every shamer brings them. The market gardener was fortunate in finding on the department’s books a job, at Napier/ which was in. his line. Three carpenters and joiners were found work at Port . Chalmers, and one at Invercargill.

In writing to a- member staff of the '“Ashburton Mail, a resident of Hawe-ra, Taranaki, states that there are some signs of depression in Taranaki, as the result of tlie tightness of the money market. Me, however, states that the dairying is now going on apace and that the season so far has been a very good one. The factories owned by the late i'll. Joli, of Okaiawa, have been turned into a co-operative concern, and 12,uuu £1 shares- were subscribed in a. lew days, while applications for many more thousands were refused. The Japanese mail steamer lvumano Maru from Yokohama, via ports, which arrived at Sydney last week passed the American fleet 18 miles from Kobe, and some of the shipspresented a sorry spectacle. A severe typhoon had been experienced and considerable damage had been sustained. From the mail steamer it could be seen that several ships had lost their masts, -and boats were missing, indicated that the fleet had experienced a very rough time. It was also reported that some sailors had been lost overboard. Prior to tlie mail steamer leaving Yokohama, a lieice <r a lo struck the city, -and played great havoc with the. decorations, torrential rain fell, and the numerous arches were campletely wrecked. “Artificial lamb chops” -are alleged to he -among the latest developments in America. Dr H. W. Waley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States, in a lecture on “What Pure Food Means,” is reported to have said: —“One day last winter, someone sent to my house- by mistake some artificial lamb chops— bones on which meat- cut from just behind) the car had been threaded very carefully to make them appear like lamb chops. It is all right to sell old bones as old bones o-r meat behind the ear by its proper name, but to sell -a combination of old bones and meat from behind the ear as lamb chops is a rank deception. It is a. violation of the principles of ethics in trade.”

PICTURESQUE JOURNALISM. Some of the accounts given in foreign newspapers of _ the reception- of the American fleet in Sydney are as extraordinary as they arc -amusing (says the “Age.”) Dates, names and events are most wonderfully mixed) up, and the “yarns” that are foisted upon unsuspecting readers reveal extraordinary imaginative powers on the parti of tlie writers. Tlie followino- from the report published* in the “Peking and Tientsin Times” of what occurred when Admiral Sperry's squadron steamed through Port Philip Heads will be -read with keen appreciation in Australia: —“When Admiral Sperry on the flagship Nebraska entered the harbor he was saluted by a roar of guns from the secret fortifications. Immediately the people let free thousands of native eagles. The booming of the guns drove tlie birds seawards, covering the remainder of the fleet, and producing a most extraordinary effect, which was hailed Writh uproarious cheers from the s eaTn en of the Yankee fleet.” The creation of “thousands of native eagles” for the occasion is distinctly good, but why transfer Admira-l. Sperry from hid flagship, tlie Connecticut, to the Nebraska ?