COMMERCIAL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 531, 8 January 1913, Page 4

COMMERCIAL.

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S CABLE Wellington, Monday.

The High Commissioner's cable, under date of London, January 4th:— The mutton market is very firm; Canterbury not quoted. North Island 4£d. The lamb market is firm, with good demand,for prime quality. Can* terbury s|d, nominal. . Beef market is quieter, holders firm; supplies of American chilled are large; N.Z. hinds 3id, fores 3Jd The butter market is very quiet. Buyers are cautious, and the market is temporarily depressed on account of the unusually mild weather. Average prices of N.Z. choicest are 119s, Australian 113s, Argentine Ills, Danish 130s, Siberia Ills. Cheese. The market is quiet. Small business is doing. N.Z. white 61s, coloured 625. The hemp market is very quiet, nothing is doing. Spot N.Z. good fair £33, fair £3l; fair current Manila £33 10a; January to March N.Z. good fair £33 10s, fair £3l 10s; fair crurent Manila £35. Quotations are nominal. The output from Manila for. the week was 17.J000 bales. s The wool market 'is strong, in all grades. .

Nominations to fill the vacancy on the Te Kuiti Borough Council, ,• caused by the resignation of Gr Forsyth, were received yesterday. Mr J. R. Graham, being the only person nominated, was declared duly elected. Among the many lots to be submtited by Mr Graham at his Bale at the mart on Saturday will be 135 cases of fruit, stained rimu sideboard also a line of good useful furniture, and five bags of slightly damaged oats. See advertisement for further particulars of both the Te Kuiti and Otorohanga mart sales.

The approach of the annual race meeting at Te Kuiti is quickening the local sporting interest. Excellent, nominations have been received for the various eventß and given fine weather the club should have a very successful meeting. The course ia in good order, but will require a little attention before being fit to race on.

The weather, which changed \A\ New Year's Day from bright sunshine to rain, continues broken and much rain has fallen during the past week. Those settlers who have burnt off will have a fine chance of getting turnip crops, but if the wet weather continues the roads will be sure to iuffer. j The garden at the Te Kuiti public V school is looking in wonderfully fine condition at present. The experimental plots which have been excellently planne/1 and carried out are all looking well, and the spell of wet weather has broght into bloom a fin« show of flowers. Altogether the efforts of the schoolmaster and pupils are to be commended, and the results of the experiments will be watched with interest. Constable T. Smith who has been stationed at Onehunga for several years, has been transferred to the Kawhia district, where he will also act as clerk of the Magistrate's Court and receiver of revenue. Dr Yorke, of the Tropical School of Medicine, advocates the extermination of big game in Rhodesia in order to stop sleeping sickness. The poor inducement offering .to young men to join tne teaching profession was deplored by a delegate at the Terchers' Conference at New Plymouth. On the other hand, cadets in the railway service started, he said, on £66, rising by annual increments of £lO to £9O. Small wonder, exclaimed the speaker, that the education boards had difficulty in getting the bright and ambitious boyß to join the profession. Another delegate from Auckland told how he had received a letter from a firm of drapers who were desirous of securing boys, and were willing to pay them £1 a week to start with. Efforts are being made to induce the Hon. Mr Herries, Minister for Native Affairs, to visit Te Kuiti at an early date, and it is thought likely he will be present at the annual race meeting to be held on February 6th. At present Mr Herries is on a visit to the Bay of Plenty in company with the «Hon. W. Fraser, Minister for Public Works. The clause in Mr Massey'a Land Bilj, whereby a number of farmers can combine in asking the Government to buy out a small estate for subdivision, the. owner being willing to. sell, is brought into operation in the Oamaru district. Negotiations are almost completed to buy up a considerable area of land near Oamaru and subdivide it into farms of from 25 to 75 acres. The property is s SJ miles from the town, and 14 miles from a creamery, school, and poßt office, and should prove to be most suitable for small farming. The derfl will be completed in a day or two.

Lord Lucas, Parliamentary UnderSecretary to the Board of Agriculture, speaking at Darlington, aaid that the Government whs establishing, through the development fund, district councils to control agricultural education. First-rate scientists were Btudying the soil and plants, and animal brooding and feeding. The leßulta will be communicated to the farmers. Dorothy Campion, aged 10, residing at Waikanae, was accidentally shot by her brother. He was playfully handling a gun, not knowing that it was loaded, . when the weapon exploded, the contents entering the girls side and killing her almost im-/ mediately.. The contractors for the roading of the Heathcote estate ar- making good progress. Plana and particulars are now available at Mr Graham's, the auctioneer, or Messrs Mackay and Jones, the agents. Mr Graham notifies that he has been appointed agent for Messrs Williams and Kettle, the well-ktjbvjh Hawke's Bay P seed merchants. Samples and prices at his Te Kuiti and Otorohanga offices. A horrible Christmas orgy was responsible for a tragedy in a San Francisco lodging house. The building was.the scene of a fire, and when the flames were subdued one dead body was found, and it is believed that others have been burned. The firemen had an exciting task. Forty of the inmates, nearly all of whom were intoxicated, were rescued from the. burning house. In another lodging ' house fire at Los Angeles five-pe>ple L were injured, one of them, a i girl, dying from the hurts she received. She jumped from a second-floor window. The Levin paper reports the saving of a white boy's life by a Maori lad at Hokio beach. A boy named Percy Blows was in a perilous condition beyond the breakers, when the Maori lad (Simeon) promptly raced to where a ' horse waa tethered, galloped - 'it through the surf, and swam it to where Blows by this time was drowning. On the ability of the horae to swim back, beating the two lad's weight, both their lives depended. Simeon had Blows across the pommel of the aaddle quite unconecioua, but this position waa an excellent "first •id" one, and within a few minutea Blows waa breathing again. The horse proved equal to his task, hut it was a long while after the boy. Blows waa safely ashore before he completely recovered. ' \