THE Shannon News FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1921.

Shannon News, 2 December 1921, Page 2

THE Shannon News FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1921.

.Meat has been reduced in price ia Shannon from December 1. Mr E. Richards is going into Nurse Essex's private hospital at Palmerston on Monday next to undergo an operation. Mrs G. P. Anderson, of Mongorie, has returned from a visit to the South Island. An eight-year-old boy, Thomas Henry King, was drowned in the Campbell Street School baths at Palmerston yesterday afternoon. He Is supposed to have slipped into the deep end, and though only a minute or two elapsed before he was bken out, life was extinct. The body was recovered by a boy named Lin'dsay Heard, who dived in and made a plucky attempt to rescue the smaller lad. Elsewhere in this issue appear* a notice of what will probably be the last dance of the season to be held in , the Druids' Hall, Shannon. The date fixed is December 6. The cwmmiuocs of the Beautifying Society uid Cricket Net Fund are sparing no pains' io make the function one of the most successful of the year. The supper arrangements are in the very capable hands of a strong and energetic committee, and they intend surpassing all the previous efforts of former, committees in attending to the requirements of the inner man. Cricketers, tennis players, bowlers and others are requested to wear flannels, as it will be a flannel dance.

. Mr and Mrs J." nyrie returned from an extended visit to Scotland on Sunday, and are at present in Shannon, where they intend to settle again.

The harvesting of a fairly large area of lucerne is in progress at the Central Development Farm, and is being stocked for winter use. Sweeps for collecting and bringing in the the lucerne hay, and a mechanical device for raising the hay to the stack, are in use, so that labour is reduced to a minimum. Except for one or two stack builders and a driver for the sweep, no other man-power is required.

"Recently a Government institution ,in this district advertised for a man to look after its milking sheds. There were no less than 40 applicants for the job, some coming from as far distant as Auckland, Nelson, Wairarapa, Hastings, Wanganui and Wellington. Some of the applicants applied personally, and appeared to be of a very good type of men.

The Central Development Farm was successful in growing a fairly large area of wheat last season, and has laid down another 12 acres this year.

A considerable number of demonstration plots with a variety of useful grass mixtures have been laid down at the Central Development Farm this season, and are looking well at the present time. These will be used for demonstrating and during visits of farmers, and should provide a useful subject for discussion. There is now only one horse cab for hire on the street stands in Auckland, all the other vehicles being taxi-cabs.

Patea has raised £IBOO for improvements to its Domain, including the proposed erection of a training shed, as the result of a Queen Carnival function.

"New Zealand will have to realise that she cannot compete with the Argentine in the supply of beef to the English market," said Mr Fitzherbert, of Palmerston North on his return after six months absence in the Old Country. "However, there is, a good demand for our mutton and lamb and, our butter, which have a big reputation."

There has been strong opposition to the £-3 per annum suggested by the the department as the charge for the rural mail service. Mr McNamara, Under-Secretary to the Department, has announced that in his tour of the Dominion during the past two months he received such gratifying support that he would recommend the Minister to reduce the charge to £1 per settler per annum for a daily service and 10s for a tri-weekly service. This would be a universal charge to all users of the rural mail, and would replace the old method of charging each service a proportion of the cost of that particular service. It is stated* that the new charges would be from January 1 next,

An amusing interlude occurred irr the Blenheim Supreme Court tins week, when counsel for the defendant, alter cross-examining the plaintiff, came to the conclusion thai the witness, after 18 months' sheep-farming, could not tell a crutclied from an uncrutched sheep (say the Marlborough Express). '-What would'a crutclied sheep look like?" asked the lawyer. "Well," hesitated the witness, "er—like a crutched sheep!" (Laughter.) "Can you diagnose 1 fie symptoms?" pressed the well-night exasperated counsel. "What would it look like?" The man in the box bore a haunted look on his face; he was distinctly puzzled. Then, of a sudden, his countenance brightened. "It would look like you if you had had a shave or hadn'tf' he retorted. Henewed laughter greeted the sally, while the lawyer hurriedly pass 3d en to the next question, i

further accentuating the slump and causing a "spasm of windines*" about everybody's operations. The other side of the picture was sketched by the manager of a New Zealand firm, who thought the panic among small dealer*" would not last long, and it was they who were responsible tor the slump. There was no reason for apprehension, however, for even if there were 2.000,000 carcases on the river they would all be absorbed before the new season's meat from New Zealand began to arrive. Spread over October, November, December, January and possibly February, ihey would not go far. There would be a gap between ihc disposal of the old season's meat and the arrival of the new, and he had confidence that there would be a very real demand for New Zealand meat before many months were passed. In confirmation of tins view it may be mentioned that the shipments of meat from the Dominion during September this year were very farshort of those during September, 1920, and that the October, November and December shipments will also be comparatively small, so that the market early in the New Year is likely to be almost bare of our meat. Killing has scarcely begun yet, and shipments will be small during the next few weeks. There is therefore good reason to hope for a marked improvement in prices very soon.-

ilt is stated that the grocers have agreed to close their establishments from 12.30 p.m. on Christmas I Eve until January 4, in order to comi ply with the week's holiday included lin the terms of the award. It is pointed out that this made a ten-day \ oreak.

Some idea of the plentitude of labour offering just now may be gained from Hie lojlowing incident which is imported to have occurred at a dairy nutory not .100 miles from Dannevirke (relates the News}. The manager recently had occasion to dispense with the services of one of the assistants. As a protest on behalf of their "injured" comrade, the rest of the.employees ceased work. The manager immediately accepted the situation and without the least difficulty filled the vacancies, with the result that the former staff was left to join the ranks of the unemployed. Billets at from £3 to £4 per week, with "perks," do not go begging long in these days.

Bad as the London market lor frozen meat has lately been, and doleful the predictions as to its course in the near future, there is more than a grain of comfort to be gathered from a letter dated October 7, from the London correspondent of the Press. After recording that the price of Canterbury lamb declined from 13d oer lb to 10|d in about five weeks, he endeavoured to account for this as in a measure due to the fact that the cold stores were full of meat and that there were 1,500 000 carcases of mutton and lamb in steamers on the river. The Government .had recently sold 270,000 carcases of mutton at 4d and 4£d, thus clearing its stocks but contributing to a depression of the market. There was also a good deal of River Plate mutton about, and Home farmers, alarmed at the drop "in the market, had hurried their stock forward, thus

In his report on Mr Master's allegations against, the Board oi Trade and certain cement companies, Mr Justice Sim finds as follows: (1) The Board of Trade, in sanctioning in December, ICJ2O,1 C J2O, an increase of £1 15s per ton, ex store, Wellington, was not guilty of any impropriety or error of judgment. (2) The increase was quite justified in the then state of the cement market. (3) The importation of cement into New Zealand was not in any way brought about by that increase, but was rendered necessary by the shortage of cement in the Dominion. The Board of. Trade did not assist or permit the cement companies, or any of them, to fleece the public. On the contrary, the Board benefited the public at the expense of the shareholders in the companies, by keeping the price of cement in New Zealand below its price in the world's market, and by controlling the distribution the cementcompanies did not- obtain unreasonably high prices from the public at any time. With respect to the other questions, the. finding of the Commissioner is: (1) That the agreement does not constitute an offence under the Commercial Trusts Act, 1910, or under any other Act, (2) It is not in any way criminal or illegal. (3) It is in restraint of trade, but the restraint is reasonable having regard to the interests of the public, and is, therefore, not invalid, and it was not made to prevent people from getting cement or to stifle competition, or to- increase the price of cement, and-was not intended by the parties to operate to the

Mr Frank Perm took fir it prize at the Cambridge Hose Show in the classes for three and six variezios.

A shocking crime took place in Wellington yesterday. A young man named Edward Alfred Foreman, whose wife has begun separation proceedings, enticed her to the yard of an unoccupied house in Abel Smith Street and there savagely attacked her with a small hatchet with a spiked end. Fourteen wounds were inflicted before the unfortunate woman was killed. Foreman then committed suicide by taking prussic acid. He was a dangerous criminal who was recently released after serving a sentence for jewel stealing. His first wife divorced him, and he then married Jean Bews, the victim of the tragedy, and employed at a photographic studio in the city.

The Auckland Herald states that owing to a recent official decision, shopkeepers will not after Thursday ne paid the commission hitherto allowed for selling stamps, and that as a result booksellers and stationers will not undertake to stock stamps in future.

Woman's position in - the economic scheme of things is a very live subject at present in the plans for social and industrial re-organisation." An interesting and, perhaps, daring school of thought advocates the complete independence of women, and one of the most contentious and interesting phases of this problem is the "Endowment of Motherhood." Miss Mary McCarthy, who is to deliver an address on the subject in the Cosmos Theatre to-morrow night, has made a special study of it, and was the New Zealand representative at the recent Geneva conference. Dr. Elizabeth Bryson will taKe the chair at 8 oclociJ. "**-