NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1919, Page 3

NEWS AND NOTES.

It is reported by the Ashburton Guai dian that as a result of recent heavi rains several farmers in the country have had to resow their turnip crops Following on the rain the ground caket hard on the surface, and the seed whicl: germinated underneath was unable t( come through. , The greyhound is the fastest dog in j matter of running, it is said. Hia ! maximum speed is 75ft in a second. ! The fastest horse has run 63ft in a second. The fox-hound is the next fastest of the dogs; one recently covering four miles in six and a-half-minutes. The ordinary domestic dog, it is stated, runs 40ft a second. From all parts of Banks Peninsula it is reported that the prospects of the cocksfoot harvest are not at all bright, owing to the long dry spell during the winter and the absence of much spring weather. The crop is very thin, and weeds have grown apace, especially goose grass. Many growers estimate their crop at less than half of last year.

A London correspondent writes that a domestic servant of Weybridge, named Hilda Horne, on hearing that her sweetheart had died of pneumonia on his way home to New Zealand, drank chloride of mercury, with fatal result. She was to have sailed herself for New Zealand in October. ‘‘l believe in punishment—at least I do now,” said Bishop Julius, amidst laughter, at the prize-giving ceremony at Christ’s College. “Punishment, however, I look upon, as a confession of failure on the part of the man who administers it.” Laughter, mingled with-doud applause, particularly from the college boys, greeted his lordship’s remarks. The next conference of the United Fire Brigades’ Association of New Zealand will be held at Hastings some time in February. It is expected.that the question of reviving the bi-annual competitions will be discussed at the conference. These competitions, which were suspended during the war period, create considerable interest amongst the members of brigades affiliated with the association, especially the volunteer brigades throughout New Zealand. “This is a sample of the sort of man we like to deal with,” said Mr C. W. Batten (repatriation officer) to a Taranaki Herald reporter the other day. “A soldier who in civil life was a labourer camp back after four years’ service bringing a wife with him. He did not take his leave, but applied for employment, which we found for him within two days. He borrowed £'so from the board to buy furniture, and he rented a .house. He was never in arrears with his payment of instalments on the loan, and the othpr day, after drawing his gratuity, he came in and wiped out the debt entirely.” A London correspondent states that the agricultural contributor to the Morning Post is surprised that New Zealand is not sending more cocksfoot seed to England. “The failure of New Zealand,” lie says, “to compete with Denmark as a source of supply- >for cocksfoot seed is a disagreeably fnet. When the war out hard fescue and cocksfoot, which do not seed well in England, were profitable little appanages of our New Zealand fellowsubjects. New Zealand fescue, sold as ‘C'hewipgs,’ has for five years been going to a price higher and higher, until other fescues are replacing it, while Danish fescue, since a year ago, has so beaten the, New Zealand out of the field that few firms quote the old familiar article.” Fescues and pons are all more or less scarce, and New Zealand is expected to ship more freely in me near future.