THURSDAY, FEB, 21 1895. Another Opening.

Manawatu Herald, 21 February 1895, Page 2

THURSDAY, FEB, 21 1895. Another Opening.

When times are depressed it is well to look round and consider what other industries 'fright be entered upon with a prospect^ of paying th;e worker for the- labour bestowed. We do not pretend to say that we have found one that will, but at the same time it looks very promising. In the start of any new method of making money we are inclined, in the colonies, to make first of all a too great a rush, and to expect much too large profits. This is writ large in everything commenoed and abandoned the last few years. First, in the early days of settlement there was wool growing, wool fell, and fell and got at last so low, so it was then considered, that wool was made a secondary consideration and sheep ware bred and grown for tallow. The carcases were boiled down, the legs sold and pigs fed with the residue trom the boiling down. Tallow fell and kept falling and remains at less than half the price it used to bring. Then another trial was made with wool, and then came the new era of freezing. Unfortunately sheep* owners were not content to accept the good gift* placed in their way to get rid of their surplus " muttons;" bat they began to breed especially for the froien, meat trade, bought land at ~sricef, Which the beat muttii uudw tbt moifr favotttibto

conditions, and the moat favourable prices were likely to yield, could only pay, and of course disappointment has come upon them. When land is again purchased bo there is a profit on tearing sheep at present prices) then the sheep-owner will see a return to prosperity, and not before. Cattle tells a similar tale, all could be frozen, then only the hindquarters, then it was found freight Was too high, and down they Would have tumbled had not the butter trade made a vigorous start. Settlers viewing the tips and downs of the stock business are not far wrong when they query as to how long this industry will run before it gets its fall, as such an increase ■of our export in this material must affect prices, and a fall in the price» say of Danish butter, means a fall in New Zealand butter. And it is merely a question of proportion for if without the New Zealand competition Banish butter fecched so much) the quantity* sent from this colony must so much decrease the price. It is not well to hope that the dwellers in Great Britain will be kind enough to buy our butter at a higher price for our benefit, they are too accustomed to be supplied from the four quarters of the Globe to bother about any particular section of it, the question is simply the price " how much ?" and the lowest price of equal, quality settles the business. These are the chief products from the land, but we were cheered further by being informed that ; money was : to. be made by fruit growbg, that it paid well in England, 80 much so that farms were being turned into orchards, and that at the time* our fruit would art'ltfe in London it would be when the English season was over, and prices would rule high. So much was this thought ..of. .that_d.istinguis.hed experts, pomologists, were imported, fruit farm settlements established, with the result that the export of has been a diminishing quantity and tons of apples are lying waste, or being fed to the pigs, and the money realised for what are sold is the smallest yet on record. It becomes very doubtful what to recommend, though we believe that the unfortunate results so far obtained have arisen from too little regard being paid to the business undertaken, and the easy manner schemes are laid aside directly the golden hue gets a little dulled. What is to be seen on all sides in the case of orchards; areas planted, neglected, blighted and fast falling into ruin, becoming only the breeding ground of blights which in time attack the property of more careful owners.

What we started upon to suggest, in the humblest manner, was that there appeared to be an opening in what might be termed chicken manufactory in this colony. In France all kinds of poultry play an important part in the income of a large number of the peasants, and in the food of the people. In England, though little has been said about it, phicken manufacturing is a very important industry, as from one town, Heathfield, eighty tons of dead poultry has been sent to market in a week. As it may be reckoned a plump bird weighs between four and five pound*, thin export would represent some 40,000 birds a week, and from one railway station. Chicks are reared all other this district and imported in a half-grown state from Ireland. The trade was started, many years ago, by one man, until it has reached its present importance, a point we want to impress upon our readers as showing that it has been understood and learnt before everyone bloomed forth as an expert chicken manufacturer. It is just something we have need to bear in mind here. The chickenH are taken up to fatten when they are about thirteen weeks old, are then put into coops and stuffed with a machine resembling a stomach-pump twice a day, that is, their food is placed in their crops without trouble to them, all they are as'ced is to sitstill and properly digest it, and get fat. This they do id about three weeks, when they are killed wholesale, plucked, and shaped. Even these people with the London market close to their doors find that a goodlooking article fetches better money than as good an article put up anyhow. Crushed oats, milk and fat, all of which there is in abundance here, is the food upon which store chickens are made into fat pullets. The idea is worthy of consideration, but under no circumstances do we desire to see all else put on one side and a general rush made to buy chiokens and to export thousands per week at the very outset. Slow and steady should be the pass-word in this as in every other branch of trade.

On l?th December a "boot" service was held in the Congregational Churoh, Watney-street, Commercial Road, London, in connection with the philanthropic work of the London Congregational Union. The " service " consisted of a gratuitous distribution of between 200 and 300 pairs of boots to needy children of the locality.

According to the Italian correspondent of the Westminster Gazette the Holy Father has come to the conclusion that the Church of England at the present moment offers the most promising field for fe-utiion with Borne. As ft preliminary Step tie has had what this ttdrrespoiidetit (Sails a " statistic *' made at the tatioan; contternitig the Jellgions of the MnglisH -sneaking wdrld. This yields tne following results: — English Church, 21,500,000; Methodists, 16,000,---0 Roman Catholics, 15,000,000 • Presbyterians, 10,500,000 ; Baptists, 8,000,000 ; Congregationalisms, 6,000,000.

It has been decided to remove the headquarters of the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. from Auckland to Wellington.

We must subject Max O'Bell to the strictest provisions of the Undesirable Iramigrants Bill-, the next time he seeks to pay us a Visit for; fancy* he has had the audacity to Write "the GoVeriinieiit oi Australia by the working-man for the working man is sublimely ridiculous "11!

The .Minister for Labour has at last, after two attempts to obtain a transfer from Manakau to Levin, become aware of the faot 1 The State Farm people object, also at last, to a license being granted. The Minister is going to engage Mr Gully to oppose the application. This is all wott. derf ul folly and naturally leads one to ask " what is up?" that all this disturbance of mind takes place at a time which would have been six months too late had not a bare majority of the Licensing Committee besn of a similar opinion, without requir. ing alt this " f ass and feathers "to keep them to their duty. Of such are the Labour Ministers like.

At a recent fashionable wedding in Titnaru the bridesmaids carried long white wands, with posies on top tied with knots of broad white ribbon.

Messrs Loveday Bros, announce the last few days of the great stock-taking sale; It will be aji Well it Careful housewives kept this in view.

Next Thursday Mr McMillan will hold a sale by auction of drapery at the Centre of Commerce. These periodical sales are well known.

The smallest conscript yet seen in France was inscribed a few days ago in the lists for the Department of the Seine. He is twenty years of age and measures exactly twenty-nine and a half inches in height. When his father brought him to the office the employes imagined at first that some joke was being played off on them. They were, however, obliged to yield to the evidence of numerous " papers " proving that the diminutive little fellow was not the child he appeared but a man. The dwarf can read and write, but his intellectual powers are but feeble.

It is now proved that ozone can be dissolved in water, which in this way emits the peculiar smell of ozone. The Abbe Mailfert, who recently communicated the results of his experiments on the subject to the Academic des Sciences, Paris, suggests that ozone should be employed to sterilise water, and that ozonised water should be used as a disinfectant and antiseptic in hospitals and elsewhere. The suggestion is a good one, and probably ozonised water will come into general use ere long.