NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1923, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

Shepherds have a very effective way of punishing a diobedient dog (says the Auckland “Star”). If one of their canines has been causing trouble they simply whistle to their other dogs, which respond by turning on the malefactor. Under the circumstances he seldom comes out of the scuffle without having received a severe mauling. In country towns troublesome dogs that make’ a habit of rushing out and snapping at passers-by are not infrequently taught a lesson on similar lines. A farmer pays a visit to the vicinity, and when' the dog rushes out he is met by half-a-dozen sheep dogs, who give him the surprise of his life. One such lesson is generally enough.

A prominent Southland agriculturist who recently returned from a tour ,f tho North Island, * expressed the opinion that a few years’ time will more than likely see a great influx of North Island farmers into Southland (states the “Southland News”). In the north tillers of the soil are working country that was purchased when prices were inflated, and consequently they are finding it difficult to scratch oven a living. Here in Southland land has remained at a nominal figure, and it is this advantage that Southlanders have that will, it is thought, eventually influence the northerners to pack up* and “go down south.”

Recently a man called at a farm and asked for a job. stating lie bad walkoil many miles and was dead beat (says a northern paper). He was willing, ho said, to work for anything at all. The landowner, who at the time had more men than ho needed, gave the man a feed and a bunk for the night, and, during the course of the evening, rang up a friend, who said he would give the man a job at 30s a week and found. In the mormg the landowner said to the man; “Well, I have got you a job at 30s a week.” “Oh,” said the man, who had now rested and been well fed, “ 1 would not work for any man for less than £2 a week.” “Well pick up' your swag and get out of this—you do not want work,” said the farmer. The man promptly left.

If tho Government's housing proposals have done nothing else they have awakened a widespread longing on the part, of thousands of people to possess their own homes (states the Auckland “Star”). Ever since the £5 per cent scheme was advanced its possibilities have gripped the imagination of the public, and despite fears that it is too good to he true, applications have been pouring steadily into tho State Advances Department. Husbands and wives have seen in it tho one means of esca.no from tiio dreary apartment house, and the snatches of conversation one hears in the streets, as friends discuss ways and means, indicate clearly that many people have been despairing of ever knowing the joys and comforts of a real home. Only those who have been forced to oceupv rooms in a bardinghousc for months on end or share a house with another family realise the tremendous handicap life under such conditions entails. Its artificiality subtly mid steadily impaires the nerves. The tooling of being constantly under observation irritates, and even the clockwork precision which is necessary in such places is irksome. Peace at any price is the only manner m which children can be tolerated in these establishments, and home-train-ing is practically an imposibility.