NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2157, 31 July 1920, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Affording' to a Chicago message, Jack Johnston has arrived from Mexico, and voluntarily surrendered to the •American Federal authorities to answer the charges outstanding against him for several years. He was placed in gaol, where he was examined. The physician said the fighter weighs 221 pounds, .and is in splendid physical condition. It is no. fairy tale (says the Sydney Sun). A really genuine green sheep can be seen on the Dubbo racecourse. It is a sheep of rare breeding, too. Nothing common about it, even as it represents one of the rarest sights in the world’s woollies. It is one of the classic Wangarella breed, and a member of the Strahorn flock of studs. And there it is—not a spot of black or white to be seen about it, though it isAieavily coated green.

“Are you always going to get 2s for butter fat?” asked a delegate of Mr C. K. Wilson (Te Kuiti), at the Farmers’ Union Conference. “Yes,” replied Mr Wilson, “I believe it will go up to 35.” “What will you do when it comes down to Is?” asked another delegate. “It never will,” was the interjection from another part of the room. Mr Wilson was emphasising that, in his opinion there was nothing in the way of a land boom at the present fime. He contended that the lands of New Zealand were so rich that it was impossible to say to what level prices would rise in the future. At any rate, if there was a land boom, ,or the possibility of a break in prices, no such suggestion in that direction should come from farmers.

When speaking on the subject of “glare” from motor car headlights, at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Automobile Union in Wellington, the Minister of internal Affairs (the Hun. G, J. Anderson) said that this question was going to be the most difficult to settle, and, in his opinion, the only people avlio could suggest any practical remedies were professors of physics, “Glare” was an absolute menace to the community. “I look upon tho man who won’t dim his lights when passing another motor car as the very Avorst of ‘road hogs,’ ” said Mr Anderson. “He is the most callous of individuals, and he should be dealt with drastically.” Mr W. Stuart “Wilson: “Confiscate his car.” “You might do that,” replied Mr Anderson, “but that Avould not be much compensation for the widow of a man who was killed through such callousness.”

The President of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union (Sir James Wilson) voices the protest of the farmer at the blame Avhich is sometimes directed at; him for the increase in the cost of living. The position, he states, is not as is often set forth. “The AvoolgroAver gets Is 3d a lb. for his wool; it lakes about a pound of wool to make a yard of cloth, and about live yards of cloth to make a suit; so that the manufacturer in New Zealand gets wool enough to make into cloth for a suit for (is 3d. Ho has no competition, and therefore <an charge his own price. When the farmer goes to the tailor for a new suit, he is told that ‘on account of the greatly-increased price of everything, I must charge you 15 guineas.’ If the farmer is Aviso, he Avill say, ‘l’ll Avail, and Avear my old suit another year.’ If the city man is told the price, he can say, ‘All right; I’ll pass it on’; and if the Avorker buys a suit he can say, ‘Another rise in the cost of living, so I must have more Ava.ges.’ A friend writes me: ‘Of the four partners in the lirm of WoolgroAver, Manufacturer, Tailor, and Distributor, the first (the grower) gets Gs 3d for his wool, less the expenses of groAving the sheep, shearing it, and delivering the wool. The other three get something like from £7 to £lO betAveen them, according to the cost: of the suit. No Avonder the cost of living goes up.’ ”