CURRENT TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 January 1914, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS OF THE DAY.

CFBOM. VARIOUS SOUIiCES.)

Most people have heard, read ] qir* known of a dog suckling*! KitfefiS, of a cat mothering chickens and even of one of the feline species allowing two young rats to take up their residence with her litter, and similiar anomalies. On a Kaikoura farm there is a mare which has taken complete control of a well-grown calf, and exercises parental duties as if the calf were one of her own progeny and species.

A resident of Tim am, states the " Timaru Herald," some time ago purchased a tin of sardines and found on the bottom of the tin a scribbled note, asking the purchaser to write to the address given, which was that of a girl. Out of curiosity, the buyer, a young man, fulfilled the request, and wrote, giving several interesting particulars of the district, and life in the dominion g&nerally. To his surprise, he last week received a reply to his epistle from the young woman from Aberdeen. xx x The keeping of livestock is a necessity. Fertility Iwill be turned back to the land. The labour needed is better distributed and the live stock business is less subject to adverse climatic conditions than grain raising. The silo will greatly increase the number of cattle that can be kept on a given area of land. The silo is in one sense a concentrated meadow. xxx The gumdiggers who have been known as Austrains have lately developed extra importance. They voice their views and aspirations through a paper of their own, and one of the things they say is that they are not Austrians butCroatians. They do not like' to be called Austrians, because they were ill-treated in their Old World home by Austrians, who happen to be the rulers of the particular perch upon^which they roosted. Croatians form part of the Austrian Empire, and they wish they did not. It will probably take a long time to get out of the way of calling our foreign settlers Austrians. If they perform well their citizens duties, and show themselves worthy of the splendid country which has given them happy homes without price or question, they will more quickly become known as New Zealanders.'