NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1925, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

There has been an epidemic of the caterpillar pest on the farms near Kakuia, according to a farm worker at present in Waiinate (says the “Advertise]'”). The caterpillars attacked several wheat crops and ruined them, 'ihe pests climb the stem and cat it through just below the ear. An analysis of the German Mat! rate during the war shows that men ic tween 20 and 2b years of age .xuifere; most heavily. Between 1913 and 191 b the mortality rate between those agejumped from 1.4 per thousand to Gfi.it. During the two billowing years it decreased, but rose in -19J8 to AS.B. Foi women between 20 and 2b years of ag the death rate increase bid not start until 1917, when the scarcity of food, coni, and other supplies was reachinga climax. That the ng-e of the motor lorry is not <unfilled solely to transport ol merchandise and ordinary articles ol (ommerve is horne out by the fact that farmers, especially those living on coastal stations, are utilising these ve hides for carrying lambs to the nectrest rail depot (says the “ Napier 4’elegiapli”). Until the lorry was brought into commissi;,n many of the Hawke’s Pay coastal sheep farmers, who were distant fifty miles or more from the railway, were unable to get their lambs away to the works.