MISCELLANEOUS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9341, 9 January 1909, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand dressed flax is now worth £1 10s more per ton than dressed Manila hemp. The explanation of this great change is the fact that machine-dressed Manila Is not nearly so good as the hand-dressed variety; and since the Uniled States have taken possession of the country machinery has been substituted, in nearly every case, for the old-time processes of manual preparation. New Zealand flax, being naturally ot a coarser textnre than Manila is not deteriorated by mechanical preparation of the hemp that it contains. ' “A carcase of beef,” declared a Wellington butcher, “costs me about 3d a pound over all, and more than sixty per cent, of it nets me less than I gave for it. The curse of the business, he declared, with some warmth, “is that all classes in the community will buy nothing but the better outs, even people in receipt of charity turning up their noses at good meat which people in the Old Country would he |glad to have if} three times the money pasted for it. Then very few people indeed will take home a parcel. What with no sale for anything but the best cuts, having to deliver everything, JJand wait for the money, the wonder is,” | be concluded, “that meat Is asl cheap as it is. ’ ’ The following are a few returns | given to me (says the corresponde». t of a contemporary) by some farmers living between Manaia and Kaponga, who have milking machines:—(l) 95 2%-years heifers, in to L.K. machine this year and managed by a man and a boy (bachelors); daily output 22001bs milk, 4 per cent, test, time milking 2)£ horns; 235 acres in farm;i intends milking next year 130 head ; (2) 160 • cows, milked on 200 'acres, Hartnett machine, second year; 48701bs milk daily, 4 per cent, test, managed by own family, time milking 2% hours. This farmer intends giving up cropping and hopes to supply fully 10,000ibs milk daily next season ; (3) 120 cows, third season by machine; 36001bs milk, 3.9 test; (4) 106 cows. SlOOlbs milk, 3.8 test. A farmer at Normanby milks over 100 cows, and has a patent whereby he never handles the milk. It is taken by. the machines Irom the cows into the cans. A patent is to be taken out at once for this.

There was an amusing interlude in Auckland Police Court on Tuesday morning. The man “Tom Burns” was called by the clerk in connection with a charge of committing a breach of the peace. A titter went ronnd.'the building 9s the owner of the somewhat famous name stepped into the box. He was a coloured man. A whisper was heard from the body of the Court, “It’s Johnson, not Burns.” There was something suspiciously like a twinkle in the eyes of Mr O. ;0. Kettle, S.M., as he turned to the accused and asked, with emphasis, “Did you say your name was Burns!” The coloured person in the dock smilingly nodded an affirmative. “No relation of—” commenced His Worship, when Sergeant Hendry drily interjected, “We had Johnson here last week, sir.” There was laughter in Court, and the case proceeded.

The most expensive goose purchased at the recent festive season is reported from Victoria. Two agents, while doing business with a local farmer at Beulah, espied a mob of geese, says a Sydney paper. Thinking of Ohrismaa dinner, they purchased one. In the rounding-np process to catch the goose the noise and excitement frightened the farmer’s horse, which, attached to a fourwheeled vehicle, was tethered to a post. It pulled back, and the winkers came off. The agents, jumping off to stop it, left the buggy and pair which they were driving These took fright at the commotion and also bolted, one, of them kicking very badly. The npshot was that the single horse and trap pulled up a mile away unscathed, whilst the agents’ vehicle was hung up in a box tree, very badly smashed. When their horses were captured only a bit of the harness was left on the collar.

You will pay just as much for a bottle of Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy as for any of the other medicines, but you save money in baying it. The saving is in what oyu get, not what yon pay. The snre-to-cure you quality is in every bottle of this remedy, and you get good results when you take it. Buying cough medicine is an important matter. Neglected colds often develop serious conditions, and when you buy a cough medicine you want to be sure you are getting one that will cure your odd. When you "buy hOamberlain’s Cough Remedy you take no ohanoes. It always cures. For sale everywhere.

In the Rotherham district, in the Amuri, the caterpillars are proving a plague to the grain and grass'orops. In some instances long strips of the country have been visited. The grubs have appeared in myriads, and have taken some chains of front over which they denude the grain crop of the ears by eating through the neck of the grain. The grass crops are being treated in a like manner. Hundred* of small birds have attacked the grubs, but they made no perceptible diminntionjn the ranks of the caterpillar army. Before the advent of the small birds on the Canterbury Plains it was not an uncommon sight to . see paddocks over run with caterpillars or the tussock and grass alive with grasshoppers, but the invasion at Rotherham is quite a new experience in recent years. Mr Sidey, M.P., has been in communication with the Minister for Railways on the subject of employees who have been retired on superannuation, but who were unaware at the time of their retirement that they were entitled to leave of absence on full pay. The matter was brought under the Premier’s notice recently, when Sir Joseph Ward was requested to allow the men the amount to which had they given the required notice, they would have been ientitled, less contributions to and allowances received under tbe Superannuation Fund. The matter has been considered by Cabin et and tbe request declined.