POULTRY NOTES.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 57, 28 February 1902, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

Same time back there .was considerable talk of a contingent being sent Home to represent the- colony at the Coronation in June next. Nothing has yet been heard of this mattery and :at this late stage it is doubtful whethera contingent representative of all the branches could be got together. Extensive alterations, in the direction of providing increased comfort for passengers,, have been effected to the Manaroa. A companion-way has been constructed from the upper deck, leading into the saloon, the ladies’ cabin renovated and enlarged, and improved lavatory conveniences lirve been provided. The Company has expended a sum of .£2OO on the boat, in the desire to make her accommodation equal to any craft of her size running on the coast. —Peloi-us Guardian. While looking overthestud draught stock of the Messrs Nathan, at Kairanga recently, I was struck with the .remarkable disparity between the stock of this fine stud and the general run of draught anin als. The explanation,of course, is. that there are too many, inferior sires being used, and thus the benefit of having.the best types in the district is not realised. The one and only remedy is the establishment of a tax on stallions, the promotion of which might well be taken' up by such an organisation as the Farmers’ Union. When every endeavour is taken to build up a stud from- the most approved and highclass types, and every care taken, by the periodic inspection by a competent veterinary authority,. to eliminate all animals vdth evbif a v suspieion of unsoundness‘or defects which

may Jie repealed An’, the progeby' ttui importance ofsbreeding ohfyTrom such sires is at onhe seen/- Oh -the other .-hand, the employment' of ;;HondescrifSt ; animals; with possible hereditary "defects and weak in characteristics of the type, can only be regarded as highly prejudicial "to the stock of the district. —Correspondent, New Zealand Times. ; The death of Billington,<the exebu-. of many notorious English criminals, recalls a curious cbnvietionof which he One derer that he executed was a Dr ANeill Cream, whom he believed to his dying day to* be '«; Jack the" Ripper.” DrCream did all he could ito f delay the execution, and-’ Billington,becoming impatient, suddenly pulled the fatal bolt. ~ As he did so he distinctly heard Cream say, “ I am ana believed that in another second he- would have confessed he was Jack the Ripper Certainly, as Billington put it, we never heard of the Itippefl ” after--wards.

Each recurrent season we. have been assured by the doleful Jeremiahs that the-Colony has been galloping on to a deficit, rushing headlong*to ruin. And yet, all the time, the Colony has been■ making amazing pi ogress, and prospering to A degi-ee entirely without parallel iii its previous history.—Wellington Free Lance.

A clergyman who road through the King Country from Strafford at the beginning of the year says that he saw more drunken ne&j-j n that* iqca lity than. he has,seen since-his arrival in New Zealand.

There has been something of a sen-, sation in Melbourne over alleged nonpayment of wages at Messrs Peacock and Co.’s O.K. Jam Factory at. South Yarra. Scores of the girls and boys allege that they were considerably underpaid for their week’s work. Some declared-that they had received only Is 6d, when they claimed 9s or 10s ; while others said they were a. few pence short. Others, again, alleged that they had received no pay* at all’ an <l were shut out of the pay officeThere are, it appears, about 1000 employed, and each being known* by a number, and receiving his or her pay in a small tin, it was represented that each employee should have an opportunity of disputing the amount of payment, if believing it to be short, -but that this was impossible, as each was pushed aside fly thd crowd behind crushing to get their wages directly a tin is handed over, and that subsequent representations were undeeded On occasions. some: of the i hands 'have been overpaid, but employees complain that few receive the advertised rate of \vages, 15s to £l.

According to a Blenheim paper, the train on the line from Picton isnotexastly a “ Flying Dutchmafl.” On a recent occasion the 6.30 train from Picton reached Blenheim two hours and a quarter late. Though very “light, at first it seemed almost impossible fdfl it to mount the Elevation, " owing; to the drizzling south-east rain. i. making the rails greasy and slippery. Twenty-five minutes were occupied in negotiating the first two miles, after which, however, good progress was made. During the exciting period of the prolonged ?raw%upwards, the guard and his assistant rendered yeoman aid to the panting locomotive by getting 'out and pushing behind a,t pno ( time looked as though all the passengers would have had to emulate their example, by putting their shoulders to the wheel. This is almost as bad as the Nelson railway;’ where, at Jenkin’s Hill, the guard is said to follow up with blocks to put under the wheels to prevent it from running back.

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