Untitled

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 54, 18 February 1902, Page 5

. .A Sydney paper says that of all New \ Zealand industries, • the hardest hit by 'the Federal ta'ifFis bacon curing. The duty of 3d a lb will kill New Zealand’s trade to the Common wealth. The Australian market was looked upon as a big one, South Africa having proved a bad frost, and Mr Seddon’s new pets, the Islanders, not using much pickled pig. The duty should give an enormous fillip to hog raising in Australia, A large business could be done by big capitalists understanding the work, .who could take up northern alluvial cultivate maize," sweet potatoes, pumpkins, etc., on a big scale, and feed the produce to pigs wholesale. In the course of a paper by Captain Hutton, read at the last meeting of the Wellingto.'i Philosophical Society 7-, the theory was Advanced that the whitebait of New Zealand commerce was the young of trie galaxias attenuatus. Sir James Hector cast doubt upon the theory. He was of opinion that the whitebait was not :tlie young of any one kind of galaxias. A spec-ies 13in or 14in lo >g was once c-aught in the Parapai aumu river by Mr Travers. The discussion was of special interest as tending to dissipate an opinion generally diffused to the effect that the whitebait is a species in itself. The septic tank principle tor the d'sp >sal of sewage is said to be especially adaptable to small boroughs or the suburbs of large towns, and the Seato un Road Board is making enquiries from, the Public Health Department for par - ‘ tii-ulars of the working of the system, v i-,h the -v ie vof applying it to ti e Sea f un d strict.

Speaking at Palmerston North, Mr Pirani sa dhe did not believe there w; sa ly i eligious community in New Zealand which bad anything like a block vote. It was the b : ggest bogev imaginable According to a Pr ess correspondent at Milan, a peasant of tie province of Brescia, while eating a pickled eel, discovered inside it. a large black pearl, lie brought his find to Milan, and sold it for 38.000 f.

The Patea Poultry Company are now sending nearly one hundred pairs ‘•>f poultry to "Wellington every week.

M:serton can boast <f a child twelve years < f age which turns the scale at twelve stone.

As showing the demand for houses in Eltham, there were no less than sixteen applicants recently for one house. Several New Zealanders left for Sydney to witness the fourth test match between the English and Australian teams, whrc.h commenced at Sydney last Friday B valuable draught horse was strangled at Ballar at, Victoria, in a peculiar manner. The animal had been backed on to the weigh-bridge at the Haymarket with a load of hay, when the belly band became unfastened, and the animal was hoisted into the air. The horse died a few seconds after being released, having been choked by the collar.

As showing how difficult it is to eradr cat ? the blackberry, a Taranaki settler dug out a root that had penetrated .over twelve feet into the ground.

On -el’"able authority we (Auckland Star) learn that it costs lesi to "dock t e steamer Delphic, 1 in Calliope “ than in London. The work was executed with greater despatch, notwithstanding the fact that the men here worked two hours per day less than men at Home; What it means to paint a steamer like tl e Delphic may be gathered from the fact, that one ton of red lead and a half ton of black paint were used in painting her hull alone-.