King Country Chronicle Saturday, January 23rd, 1915.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 739, 23 January 1915, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Saturday, January 23rd, 1915.

A conference between tho Commodities Commission and representatives of the meat trade has opened at Sydney to discuss tho causeß of the high price of meat. The various causes assigned are tho increased population, decreased flocks and herds, the drought, the increased demand for choice cuts, the advance of trade wages, and tho increaaed export to supply tho war'B demands. Mr Graham is favoured with struclicns to sell Mr R. A. Tims' furniture and effects on Thursday, 28th inst., at his residence, King street. Tho goods will bo on view on Wednesday between 3 and 5 o'clock, and are well worthy of inspection being practically new and clean and well kept. Particulars in advertising column.

Free railway fares, to the Feilditig Show, and John Cobha's summer Bale, are to be obtained by country residents who can comply with the following conditions: "Anyone resident botween Waverley and Marlon, Tuumarunui and Maiton, Otcki and Palmerston North, personally visiting John Cobbe's sale and purchasing not less than £5 worth of goods will receive a refund equal to tho amount of a Becond-claBS return railway fare, or a first-calss Bingle faro. Railway tickets mu3t bo presented at the ofiice when application is made for this concession." The Foildin/r Show is on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 2nd and 3rd, and John Cobbe's Bala proceeds until February 13th. \ number of bargains from John Cobbe's summer sale are advertised in our columns to-day.

Norman Brookes, who returned to Sydney by the Osterley, atuteo that the Davis Cup contests aroused tre mendous enthusiasm in America, where the game is very popular. America is also producing some fine playera, Bays Brookes, who iiitendß to return to England after the war to defend the British championship. He declares that tennis form in England is below that of previous yearß, the trouble being that the game is not encouraged in tho public schools. •;

The assurance is given by flourmiHers that there is no acute danger of a bread famine. The prospects of the New Zealand wheat harvest are now better tha they were a month ago, and it is estimated that the jield will bo greater than previously calculated. Tho wheat crops are reported to be thin in northern areas, but in the South farmers anticipate a good yield. Flourmillers generally do not anticipate an inflation of prices for the new whoat. Tbey believe that, although the farmers will doubtless demand all they can get for their yields of whoat, conditions will be normal in March. It is admitted, however, that the administrative authorities will require to bo on tho alert to frustrate any exploitation. The steamer Aldenhatn, from Japan and the Far East, brought to Australia a patty of Russians from Siberia and Manchuria. In the party were five women. All remained in Sydney except one woman, who went on to Melbourne to join her husband, who was already there. These immigrants had much of interest to tell regarding Siberia and the Bidc-lights on the present war in that far corner of the Russian Empire, savs a Sydney paper. They state that whole districts have been emptied of their young men, who have eagerly volunteered to join the colours. The district of Yakhoust has been almost depopulated owing to the fact that it is largely composed of men of military age. These men are not conscripts, but volunteers in the true sense of the word. They enlist with enthusiasm as to a great hunting expedition.

A cab proprietor in a lurge way of business complained to a Nelson reporter that he wes unable to purchase oaten chaff for his horses for the coming winter, not because there was none in the district, blat bocause those who had it, ho Etatod, wfre holding for better prices. He explained that it was his practice to go into the country districts ones a year to procure his supplies, hie terrnß be* ing held cash iiown. and the balance When the chaff was placed on the trucks. Last week he made hia usual round, but on approaching fanners with whom he had done business for years past he was met wUh the reply, "We don't want to sell." He states that last year he paid up to £3 10s per ton, and this year he offered .£5, but there waa no business doing. "If the farmers are going to hang on until the prices get still higher, then the cnb proprietors aro in for a bad time, he remarked.

A rather startling report that quantities of unbranded tinned meats are finding a way from New Zealand into the hands of the enemies caused a Star reporter to make inquiries in Auckland this week. A well-known shipping agent stilted that at present there was no tinned meat leaving Auckland at all, and supplies were just sufficient for our own requirements. It had been suggested that meat was being sent to America, and from there was being forwarded on to neutral countries. As a matter of fact there was now no meat being taken from Auckland to American ports, so that nono can be finding its way to the enemy through that channel. It was, perhaps, true that some tinned meat waa being sent from other New Zealand ports to America, and in such a esse it would be hard to believe that the Americans themselves needed it, for a Chicago factory could turn out more in a week than we did in a year.