CURRENT TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 January 1914, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS OF THE DAY.

(FROM VARIOUS SOUKCES.)

It is gratifying to be able to xeport that there is strong evidence of an improvement in the: price of wool both in the local aijfa v , Home markets. The operations of American buyers at the Napier 1 sales may be regarded as an in- M dication that competition froni jB this direction will shortly be very^M strong. We have all ,along beenM of the opinion that thi; placing of^H wool on the free list by the United^l States would have a maried effect upon the Home and caloni-^ al markets. It must be remembo^^B ed, in this connection, that tl^^B new tariff only came into open^H tion on December Ist, and th^^H certain local adjustments wcr^H bound to be necessary before thf^H increased demand was apr^^nt.«B It seems now as though t^Bßfe^B had arrived for American ]^^^B^l and this will be bound -^^^^^^| fleeted on the market. Year after year kee!^^^^^^H spend a holiday at Ru^^^^^^H devote their time to the^^^^^^B catching kingfish. So f^^^^^B name of Russell and kingf^^^^^H in a sense to these men sy^^^^^H mous, but the time may when Whangarei, will a^^^^| their attention. The much sou^^^H after fish is very plentiful roil^^H about the Heads, and especiallJ^H so this year. An angler on one^H launch last week caught over a V dozen between Guano Island and the Frenchman, arid under almost every buoy in the lower end of - the ha&bour kingfish of various sizes could be seen from passing boats. . .- x ' x x ; | The Stratford correspondent of J • the Taranaki Herald, writing of I the past year, says :—" The year M has been ori the whole a very pros-' 1 perous one,for, at any rate, th& \ district. Never before was so il much money distributed by the.- J dairy factories in a twelve-month. • > I The winter was a mild one and ' Miauled farmers to start the milk- ;' g searsoa v with stock in good : condition. A\ wet spring andJSjr early summer interfered, a littS^B with cropping operations, but th^^B situation was saved in time^^^H the fine weather of'the past fort^H night." , x, x x Is there snobbery in our sihal^H towns ? The following paragfaph^^H taken from a Home paper, giving^^B a visitor's . impressions of New V Zealand, may be of interest to our fl readers :—-" Life in New Zealand M presents .many -remarkable aspects, but what will, perhaps, strike a visitor 'most is the pecu-^H liar snobbishness to be found in^H its villages/ In some of these little communities many of the residents have never been distant for more than a few miles fro m'^ their own doorsteps, and to their I environment is no doubt due the 1 caddishness and smallminded- 1 ness that is so noticeable. To an -:M onlooker the self-sufficiency of M these rural inhabitants is truly. fl diverting. They are as a rule fl divided into little sets or clique:. H and it would be quite derogatory H i^SMrs Jones of No. 1 to speak to H Mrs^^o wn of No. 2. A little" ex- ■ perienc^^of the world would be W great in slewing them how very ■ small theyfrsally are." - ■ ■'. x ■■■ M, x \ It has. become ffi§ practice with 1 those who run bazaars,, art unions, I and such like, to'evade Nth x c Gam- 1 jng Actjin various ways. v One of^^ the commonest is to presjent> tbIMH winners-of- prizes in- raffles' er:^^H with sometimes the* value whicH^^l is not a work of art." This evasion^H of the Jaw will in future be dealk^B with as a breach, of the Act. for a 'IB recent -". Gazette "notice announces -thkt regulations have been- framed which forbid the offering of any.inducement in the : | shape of prizes which are not j works of art, aridwhich^cannot be , j brought; uiider. the category V»f JM su-ch.' ■■■ v;. " '^JH ■■-"• .x ■ f^l Sir Rider H^ggkrd', in his address at the Authors' Club, spoke ' not one whit too strongly when he said that he had seen things in Australasia- calculated to make the heart" of any" forester bleed. He seems to have' been particularly affected by the destruction ?£; ,th? F ew Zealand forests.' Within certain limits (say's tba ' •> Christchurch' Press) it is quiC *^ proper to utilise timber and tcr^i clear bush land for settlement. IP But there is no doubt that some H# gastly mistakes have been in.^^: New Zealand. Protective bush^^ has been removed from hillsides,the- land cleared, never very valuable, has become worthless '' 4§i because the best soil has speedilY =?S been washed, off the hills, and iw :^M some cases the floods which have occured, owing to the removal of " the bush, have greatly injured more valuable land. Doubtless, bir Rider Haggard had this sort of * tiling, m view when he spoke of cierts m tiie precipitous cliffs '" in T{dw Zealand being cleared al- \ t;ii)up, : h quite unfit for sfvt±lo,™w*, ' v