GENERAL NEWS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 108, 28 November 1918, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

One of the most famous, dairy cows in England, Golf Sietske X., made the high price of £472 at the sale of the British Friesian herd of Mr F. W. Bobinson, Boos Hall, Beccles, England, in September. The price is a record for a Friesian cow, the previous best being £3,675 -for Mr May's Eske Hetty,

An interesting return was quoted by Mr Moss at the annual meeting of the Newman Dairy company (reports the Stratford* Post*), when he gave the following butter-fat averages per cow in each provincial district: — Auckland, 1601 b; Taranaki, 1881 b; Wellington, 1381 b; Canterbury 1271 b; Otago, 1081 b; Southland, 1811 b; average for the Dominion 1601 b.

The consent of the GovernorGeneral has been given for the raising of the following loans from the State Advances Office: —Eureka Drainage board £SOO, Hungahunga Drainage board £6OOO, and Woodlands DrainAge board £IOOO, for constructing drainage works; Matamata County council £1960, for forming a road in the Whitehall special rating area; Piako County council, £ISOO for metalling the Te Kawana road and a portion of the Ngutamanga road.

In the course of an address on " The Poultry Industry in Australia," at Christchurch, Mr J. B. Merrett •toted that the Australian Government had invested over £30,000 in plant for the purpose of starting returned soldiers in the poultry industry." A complete township has been built at Burnside (some twenty miles from Sydney), and each returned Soldier was provided with a fire-acre lot a house, £2 8s a week while learning the industry there. The returned men expressed complete satisfaction with the arrangements, and, so far the scheme has been highly successful.

"How are we going to prevent land aggregation?" asked the chairman of the Balclutha Farmers 1 union meeting on 25th ult. "If you cut a cake into five pieces, and there are only three persons to eat it what can be done with the other two pieces ? Land is being cut into small holdings where there are no people to occupy them." The chairman in the course of further remarks on the land and population questions, said the last census showed that the drift of population was to the town—viz., 22£ per cent, against 2$ per cent, to the country. A munition Worker .near. JDondon, one of a family, which, though earning about £l4 a week, lived in a couple of rooms, bought a grand piano for which she paid £ls0 —the carving on the woodwork and fine exterior its chief attraction in her •yee. Three weeks later she said •he was tired of the piano. "It got in her way," and she wanted to sell it back. The dealer went to the house, and was amazed at the state of the once beautiful instrument. Its chief use seemed to be for holding of food. The woodwork was greasy, the inside damaged from spilt liquid, and the keys sticky with jam! "I can only offer you £'2s. That is all the piano is worth now," said the dealer. The munition maker was quite content to get rid of her encumbrance at the price.

When the British forces penetrated into the more thickly-populated parts of Palestine—Jerusalem, Jaffa, etc. —there, was absolutely no gold in circulation in any coinage. Silver was the current specie and so highly was it prized that a Turkish £1 note (and even a British note of the same denomination)was worth only about Bs. With the quickened propensity of the native people to hoard up that which was of the greatest value at the moment, silver itself became exceedingly scarce. To get over the difficulty the British Government sanctioned the Egyptian banks to issue a five<piastre note (worth Is), and such was the •fleet of that move that the natives emptied their hoards of silver coin on to the market, until there was a positive glut, and it was not an uncommon thing for natives to accost soldiers to ask them if they wanted change for their notes, the reason being that the banks in Palestine (•cognised the British five-piastre note, but not the Turkish money.

The deplorable conditions of the prisoners repatriated from Germany under the terms of the Armistice will cause the Allied to turn deaf ears to the appeals for less stingent terms. All the stories of German brutality and become more readily believable with living evidence of their truth becoming'powerful witness. No excuse ■which the Huns may bringforward will be sufficient to win justification for their deeds. Like all bullies they have a deep rooted objection to drinking the same gort of medicine they dispense to others. They immediately cry for mercy when retributive action sets in, little thinking that their deeds have released the forces which threaten to overwhelm. The Huns must need be taught that mercy is earmarked for the merciful.