MISCELLANEOUS NEWS

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 28, 15 November 1901, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS

Messrs Page and Spurge, of Takaka, have received the following advice from their London agents regarding hops : “ Until business re-opens there is no prospect of placing any of these hops to advantage, to for ce sales is next to impossible. . New English crop is now coming to hand and is offered at from 30s to 70s per cwt., but find no buyer's. In about a month’s time the market will be fully supplied and consumers ready to give attention to hopbuying. Unfortunately our* crop here has turned out so large, probably 700,000 ewts., that business in hops is sure to be slow and values only very moderate.

The tra 'e in English wool still maintains an unchanged aspect. There are not many users anxious to buy, and the few inquiries met with are at the lowest prices touched. A Bradford correspondent, writing last month says : There now exists a strong undertone , of confidence. ,A month ago, when values were at ~a phenomenally low level, a good deal of business was done on the quiet, and holders being thus relieved from' any pressure to sell are standing firmly for slight advances. In meviiK s prices have already recovered a. penny, and the stronger crossbreds may be quoted a halfpenny above the bottom. English wools are at present but slightly affected,, though the}', too, are the turn against the buyer, and in the case of lustre sorts are a farthing to a halfpenny up. The export yarn trade is still adversely offected by the financial stringenev in Germany, hut the home . trade is a little more promising, though still far from brisk.

In the opinion of President Cooper, based on investigations made by the Arbitration Court, house rent in Dunedin is higher than rent in Christchurch, but there is a manifest increase in the charges in Wellington. In Auckland the rent is pr ! obablv the cheapest of any large centre in New Zealand. In every city in which the Arbitral ion; Court had sat it was always admitted that the cost of living in Wellington was dearer than in any other centre. In his opinion, formed upon evidence taken by the Court, the cheapest place to live in "was Auckland, then came Christchurch, next Dunedin and lastly "Wellington. Ranjitsinhji’s recent performance of scoring 489 runs in two matches has been exceeded on only two previous occasions. W. G. Grace, nlaying for Gloucestershire against Notts in 1876, scored 177, and' in the -next-* match against Yorkshire he contributed 318 ndt out, thus bringing his total for two innings up to 495 for once out, which beats R-anji’s score.by six. As in the match just before these Grace .actually scored 344, he obtained a total of 839 for three successive innings and only:twice oet. The other, case

was that o£. W,, W.. w Read, ? In, -June, 1887,Tip scored 247 for Surry against Lancashire, at Manchester, and ..then, playing at the. Oval, made:2 44 not out against; Cambridge University, . bringing his total up to 491. The performers of, this wonderful feat thus comprise three of the greatest batsmen of all time.

‘The following is the last wool report of Messrs Murray, Roberts and Co., of Wellington : —We offered a few odd bags of wool and 1600 sheepskins. Wool now arriving is being held for the first sale of the coming season,- on the 28th November. Bidding for skins was not so brisk as previously, lately received account sales being probably responsible for this, We quote - skins as under :—Merinos and halfbreds, 3gd to 4|d per lb ; crossbreds (good), 3d to 3gd per lb ; crossbreds (short and inferior), 2d to 2|d per lb; dead and hoggets, lfd to 2gd per lb ; pelts up to 6d each.

There are many poultry yards throughout the country, in which the fowls are allowed to run year after year, without the soil being ploughed or spaded. This is a mistake. Hens will do much better on ground that is turned over and loosened up, at least once a year. Where it is not convenient to get in the yard with a horse, so as to plough, the ground should be dug. ' A good plan is to sow it with wheat or rye in winter, then keep the hens off until the spring. This is much better than bare yard, and will be found a decided fienefit to the flock after winier’s confinement. Free use of air-slaked lime in the hens’ yax-ds and runs is advisable at all seasons.

An Alexandra (Otago) fax-ixler who went to Dunedin the other, day with .£3BO in his possession is likely to remembei- his visit to -the city for some time to come. Going to the races he imbibed rather freely, and, falling in with evil companions, he woke up next morning to find that someone had relieved him of his money,- with - the exception of about £SO.

A Taranaki dairyman, in a lettex- to a. contemporary, gives an example of the seax city of labour. He had been on the lookout for a man to milk for the past month, and had not yet succeeded, although he. had offered 20s to 25s a week.and boai-d arid lodging fox' a man who would milk 26 cows night and morning. Besides his own case, he knew of several dairymen who were in the same position as himself. Bush-fellei-s were "just as scax-ce, and the same wages were offex-ed for good men. In fact, the wx-iter had never, during a residence of some fifteen years in the Taranaki district, seen labour so scarce as at the present time. In Westland 17,000 acres have been ■reserved in the Otira sur-vev district for- the national pai-k, and in the Miiichin, Bealey, Davie,-fand Hawdon survey districts of Canterbury 150,000 aci'es have been similarly resex-ved. The Whangape, which left Lyttelton for Calcutta: last week, took 105 horses. ..

“ Does your wife do much fancy work ?” “ Fancy work ? She won’t even let a. pox-ous plaster come into the house without crocheting a x-ed. border x-ound it, and running a yellow ribbon through the holes.” Sir T. Lipton was recently ; reported in a message from New York to be living the life of a hermit on board the Erin In particular he is avoiding the fair sex, for the number of letters which have been received from wamen causes him to dread the fate of Lieutenant

Hobson, who when, the greatest hero of the Spanish-Amex-ican war allowed! himself to be kissed into oblivion. 1