Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 6 July 1921, Page 2

Tilk correspondent front Okurit. who wrote in such an optimistic tone yesterday on the late visit of Mr Clay ton. of the Agricultural Department, is apparently alive to the prospects of the far sough as a daiiyiug centre. Circumstances, indicate that he is not far wrong. Tile whole of the southern Westland is proving itself a great pasCoral •'.otuilry, and as the bush ieleared and the grass is brought up. litis is being generally demonstrated. F.acli of the settlements where dairying has been taken up has done well in the pursuit. It was very good of the Government to send an officer into the far south and give the settlers in that remote quarter, the information so necessary for them to set about the industry in the most promising wav. The Department has had a long experience now, and its officers should be well qualified to guage the prospects of si;< • •ess in any given locality. Mr Clayton put- his finger on a vital need for successful dairying by pointing out the necessity of selecting good milking strains. Hitherto the far south has turned chief attention to the taisiitg of l eef.. Dairying i alls for different strains, and the advice coming from such art authority as Mr Clayton will carry weight. The southern people are well able to make a good beginning by starting with the right strain of milching cows. Although the distant Okurtt is regarded as the far south. Mr Clayton pointed out that with a good steamboat service, and the Otirn tunnel completed, they were, after all, within hut a few hours of good coal storage sheds at Lyttelton. This professional opinion of the value of the Otira tunnel to Westland hears out all we have said and felt about the great utility of that national work to the Coast. It is to bo hoped the Okiirn people will take their courage in both hands and go forward unflinchingly with a project which will ensure industrial prosperity to their district.

How AuStrafia a muses itself in its leisure hours is revealed in the amusement tax statistics. The popular theory is that the national Australian recreation is the racecourse. Statistics tell a different tale, and show six million race-goers beside 76 million patrons- of the picture theatres. One has to heatin mind, nevertheless, that the six millions on the racecourses do not rep. resent the total interest in horse-racing by any manner of means. One cannot enjoy the pictures without being present in a picture theatre, hut: personal attendance is by no means essential in Australia to interest in race meeting. The amusement tax does not reveal everything. It shows, however, when the average is worked out, that it is equivalent to every matt, woman and child in the population of the Commonwealth going to some kind of entertainment on nineteen occasions during the year. Thirteen of these outings were to a picture show, two to a theatre one to :i race meeting, and one to a concert, skating rink, 01- dance-hall, and two to various miscellaneous forms of amusement. Obviously the very young and the very old, and the dwellers in remote places, do not go to taxable entertainments nineteen times a year, and it. is evident that there must he large numbers who go very frequently. Indeed, for many city-bred Australians, remarks an exchange, an evening at home seems to he becoming ti last resort. The family meets round the dining table, it snores under the same roof, and that js the end of its corporate existence.