GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 300, 5 October 1910, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

A New Zealand horse-dealer, who returned from Melbourne by the s.s. Manuka, told a "Southland Times" representative that there was still a big demand in the Australian markets for horses, and that good-quality animals could be easily disposed of. Western Australia, he said, was particularly eager to buy.

When a train stopped at a station a dishevelled man rushed up to one of the smoking compartments. "Anybody got any whisky," he gasped. "There's a lady fainted at the other end of the train." Several' flasks were at once offered him. "Thanks," he said, taking along drink; "it always makes me feel queer when I see a lady faint!"

It was a shower of rain that preserved the Yass-Canberra site for the Federal capital. When the time came for the critical division in the Federal Senate the other week the morning was wet, and an elderly senator who was strongly opposed to Yass-Canberra was unwilling to run the risk of exposure to bleak weather. He stopped at home. The voting was even at the division, and Yass-Canberra was saved.

A Southern paper states that two brothers at Colyton were anxious to obtain farms. The elder pursued land ballots all over the North Island, and failed every time. Quite recently he died. His brother, discouraged, cleared out for Canada, saying he did not intend to waste time waiting for a marble in a land ballot. He now writes, stating that he secured a farm of 320 acres. The new Anti-Trust Bill is intended to prevent trusts from selling goods at "unreasonably high" prices. The Statute Book already contains an enactment against "unfair competition" by offering goods at "materially reduced" prices. In this connection the Otago "Daily Times" suggests that it is a question whether the Government might not be convicted of vending the products of the State mined at an "unreasonably low" price, when all things, including the expensse of production, are considered. Says the "Manawatu Times:" "We recorded recently a sharp shock of earthquake. It has had the curious effect of killing a great number of unhatched chickens. There are several poultry raisers here who incubate on a large scale and they are discovering that the chickens that would have been alilve in the shells at that time are dead. It means a serious loss to many of them. One man had to take a clothes basket full of eggs so spoiled from his incubators, and others are fearsome that their eggs have all been affected." A business man in Wellington who is connected with the timber business states that there is at present a decided shortage of labour for sawmill work. His company, he says, has failed to obtain all the competent men it requires at the current rate of wages and the output of its mills is consequently being restricted. Some little time ago the sawmilling industry in most parts of New Zealand was depressed on account of the dearth of orders, and a large number of operatives left for Australia, where plenty of work was offering. Things in the timber line in New Zealand have since considerably improved, and mills which had been shut down for the winter have now resumed operations.