NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2183, 30 September 1920, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

A paragraph in these columns recently drew attention to the high price being paid for draught horses at Levin, viz., £sl. This price has, however, been surpassed in Eltbam, where milk-cart horses have been' bringing over £SO, and draughts from £OO to £OS. —Argus. A remarkable incident recently occurred at Mauricevillc. A cow belonging to a soldier settler calved on Saturday, and was brought in and milked. On the following Thursday she gave birth to a second calf. Both of the calves were fully developed and quite healthy. A local farmer’s experience with phosphorised pollard used for rabbit poison is not encouraging. So far very few, if any, rabbits have been found dead, though many live ones are in the vicinity, but the roll of dead stuck includes a pig, several ewes, and a heifer. —Palmerston Times. The following sums are spent annually in the United States on what are described as luxuries; —Motor cars, £400,000,000; carpets and costly clothing £800,000,000; sweets £2()0j00fl,000; cigarettes, £100,444.000; perfumery and cosmetics, £150,000,000. The American Republic has 103.500,000 people, and the expense per head on luxuries is about £l7 a year, or Os (id a week. When interviewed at Bat hurst, Barry said he was going to retire. When Felton beat him the only one pleased to see him was his dog. He intended handing the title to no one. Nobody in England could aspire to the championship, and no one in Australia was much above the others. He. suggested that Felton, Paddon, Ripley, and Arnst have a sweepstake, (lie winner to be the champion of the world. If-there is a shortage of butler in Dunedin it is created by hoarding. The talk of a possible rise in price has, ihe Dunedin Star believes, led many persons to lay by boxes of 141 b! and 2811). They show great faith in the keeping quality of the butler, for much of what is now coming to band was made in february. But for this hoarding there would he enough for all normal requirements, and there are 8,000 boxes for Otago on the Navua. When dealing in the court at New Plymouth with a youth who pleaded guilty to the theft of. £7. 10s .from a billiard saloon, Mr A. T. B. Bailey, S.M., took the opportunity of commenting to the effect that he thought the trouble with the boys at the present time was that they got too much money. Want of money should not be an excuse for stealing money in New Zealand, he said, as boys could earn more money than was really good for them. There was no occasion for any youth in this country to he short of money. The trouble was they got 100 much money and then went wasting it, and when they lost it they were tempted to steal. Apples, pears, and potatoes are particularly cheap on the Auckland wholesale market at the present: time. Reviewing the position, an auctioneer said that apples and pears were 50 per cent, cheaper at the present time than they were at the same period prior to the war. He attributed the substantial lowerjpg in price to the fact that there was a large quantity of both fruits in cool store throughout the Dominion, suftieient to last right through to the introduction of next season's crops. Despite this cheapening of the apple, he said, it was surprising that the public ale so few. This was exemplified in the fact that the rate of consumption had by no means kept up with the increase of population. “Fire blight," the most deadly disease of fruit trees, broke out in the Auckland district last November, and has since spread over an area hounded in the north by A arkw'orlh, on the south by To Awamutu, on the east by Tauranga, and on the west by flelensville —the whole Auckland Land District. Addressing the Hastings Chamber of Commerce and members of the Hawkes’ Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association recently, Mr W. 11. Rice, orchard inspector, urged the greatest vigilance against any further advance of the disease, which attacked apples, pears, and quinces in particular. It was extremely contagious, and could be started in a tree merely by using pruning knives not sterilised after previous employment on affected trees. A single diseased blossom would canker a whole tree. The more succulent growth, the quicker the disease would spread. It was IneumlJeut on the whole community to clean up and burn affected trees. Vigilance was the price of safely, and he asked a#“fs report dead blossoms, dead tips, dead twigs, cankers, and premature autumn foliage to him at once.

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are more than 1,500 different tribes of American Indians. More Hum 100,01)0 motor ears are stolon annually in the United States. The cherry, the peach, and the plum were nil'first grown in Persia. There are 28,827,188 miles of telephone ware working in the United -States. .If is 'estimated that the Brazil coffee crop for 1920 will total 8,018,000 bags. India and China contain approximately one-half the total population of the world. The hippopotamus is nearly blind, but can scent a white man two miles to windward. Quebec produced in 1919 £4,085,485 worth of minerals, half of which was asbestos. The sum of £10,000,000 is spent annually in the United States of America on chewing gum. English claims for repayment of income-tax in the year ended Juno 30th last numbered 1,052,082. There have been 2,500 applications for 12 houses at East Ham, England, that: are not yet completed. Britain has bought the year’s sugar crop in Maurtitus, comprising over 200,000 tons, at a cost of £18,000,000. About 100 New York business men go to business and back to their country homes daily by aeroplane. When Caruso, the famous tenor, is on the stage, his medical attendant is always on duly behind the scenes. Diamonds to the extent: of 873,901 carats, valued at £2,008,854, were produced in the Transvaal daring the year 1919. China exports millions of hairnets to European countries, the Chinese being the most expert makers - of" these articles. China sends to Europe and America every year nearly 0,000,000 pounds of walnuts, nearly hall oi them Doing shelled. From I he dale of the armistice to March 31st, 1920, the British naval and military operations in Russia have cost £55,973,000. British yachtsmen have spent about £1,000,000 in attempts to recapture. the American Cup, which in itself is worth about £SO. The number of women at present employed on British railways is 80.000, There were 00,000 in 1918, and 12,000 before the war. According to a record which was kept during - a period of seven years, lightning in England struck poplars 282 times, oaks 180, willows 70, and yews 50. Pungent and acid tastes are perceived by the lip of the tongue; the middle tastes sweets and bitters; while the back and lower parts taste fatly substances. The planet Mars, concerning which so much interest has been raised by scientists, is at, its nearest 85.000. miles away, qnd at its farthest 00,000,000 miles. Not many years ago Argentina had to import its Hour. To-day if sells wheat to the world, the value of Hie annual harvest amounting to mure than £100,000,000. For the tinaneial year ended June 80lh, the Panama Canal had (he largest volume of trallie since its opening, 2,470 commercial ships of 8,045,000 net tons passing through. Niagara was the first of the great falls to he harnessed as a power-generating agent. From its five power stations electrical energy equal to 580,000 horse-power is obtained. The value of quinine in cases of fever has been known for nearly 800 years, its virtues were first brought to light in Europe by the Jesuits, one of the brotherhood having neen cured of lever m Peru by administration of cinchona bark by a South American Indian. The Pacific cable from Vancouver to Norfolk Island is to be duplicated at the cost of £4,000,001). Its length is 0,000 miles, and it is only to call at two places, Fanning Island and Fiji. The length to Fanning island is the longest si retch ever laid. During the first six months ol: 1920 Britain exported goods to the value of £037,400, 884, while goods to the value of £1,033,334,084 were imported. The (Ingres for the corresponding period of .1919 were £334,750,132 and £710,787,420 respectively.