THE MEAT TRUST.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 November 1917, Page 4

THE MEAT TRUST.

X Leading stations in the Hawke's Bay district have contracted vrith buyers, who are believed to represent the "meat trust," to sell all their bull calves during the next four years. Stock-raisers in all parts of the province have contracted to sell, heifer calves for a similar period at varying rats. Prices as high as £8 for calves two months old, and £7 for calves a week, old arc said to have been offered. Buyers are very active, and such prices are being embodied in contracts weekly. Though they do not desire to purchase mutton, farmers have refused to contract for their future beef unless the buyers took over their mutton, sometimes at Id a pound above the export value.

The Waipawa Mail reports that another very substantial rise in the price of benzine is contemplated.

Mr James Knight, secured the whole of the first prizes but one and one second with his Southaowns at the Wanganui Show. The first prize for maiden hack up to 12st went to Mr E. Short's entry. Twilight,, Mr. J. J. Brycc's patriotic mare, won the hunters' jumping competition.

The Taranaki Iron Co's large furnace to deal with ironsand was lighted up at 10 o'clock on Tuesday night. and since then three most successful tappings have been made producing at the rate of 15 tons per 24 hours. The iron is grey and runs very freely The furnace is working quite satisfactorily.

Two soldiers escaped a day of two ago from a detention camp in New Zealand. They cut their why through the floor of the hutment in which they were confined. They also left a message of farewell. Despite efforts to locate them, the pair are still at large, and are considered to have taken to the bush, Both have been in the limelight before this present escapade.

Dairying is progressing rapidly on the pumice lands alongside the Taupo Totara Timber Co.'s railway. The company is now carrying over 15001 b. of cream weekly from the Muraitai and Tokoroa district, where, during the last two years, a number of settlers have established themselves. Experts declare that these districts will soon become important producers of buttei and cheese.

The Dunedin Star has been told of a case in which a farmer bought 40 bags of wheat for seed purposes at 6s per bushel. ■ He paid railage from Dunedin to the nearest railway siding also the cost of carting it to his farm. Owing to the floods, he could not sow the seed, so had to cart it back to the siding, and had to pay railage to Dunedin. He was offered 6s 6d for it as fowl feed in Dunedin, but the Government stepped in and informed him he must not take more than 5s 9d. The Government pay 5s 9d in Australia and also the cost of transit to New Zealand. Further comment is needless (says the Star.)

Commissioner for Stamps has come to the conclusion that club subscriptions to such institutions as bowling, golf, or tennis clubs, are not liable to pay the amusements tax. If at any time admission is charged to persons wishing to be spectators at any of these games the admission charges will 'bo liable to the new duties. No definite pronouncement has yet been made as to the policy of the Department in regard to the taxing of private entertainments but it is probable that the tax will not be levied on charges for admission to such entertainments if they are promoted by a limited number of people for their own amusement.

What looks like a record in wooldisposal was accomplished by Mr. H. disposal was accomplished by Mr H. has established wool stores at Waf nganui, where the Government grader values the wool and takes it over for the State. 'Amongst the wool he was sending in was a line which ran into forty bales, and which was on the sheep's back on Tuesday morning, hist. The wool was shorn in Fielding at Mr. Robert's shed, baled and sent to Wanganui on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday it was valued and taken over the price being a really good one Besides this line, Mr Roberts had a quantity of other wool in for valuation and it is creditable to the woolgrowers to know that the lot brought the highest average price of the day at Wanganui. Special value in Ladies' Moiretto Underskirts, all shades, all one. price, 6/11. See widnow. Collinson and Gifford, Ltd.

Captivating little Marguerite Clark appears to-morrow at Everybody's in the Famous Players' great pantomime success "Snow White " a picture nobody should miss seeing.

A cable message has been received stating that the American steamer D.N., Luckenbach was torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay on October 27. Five of the crew were lost. Twenty survivors reached the United States.

In response to frequent inquiries, and to meet an evident want, Mr H. Green, tobacconist, Station Street, is now stocking a collection of Edison's phonographs (all models), spare parts for same, and a large and varied selection of records.

At F. Ward and Co's Tui Street Mart, on Saturday an exceedingly interesting lot of useful articles are to be sold by auction without reserve. Our readers are strongly advised to look through the list advertised on page 8 of this isshe.

An interesting piece of information is conveyed in our cable message today in a despatch from Central Africa, in which the German high officials have been exhorting the remnants of their hard-pressed forces there to hold out until January, 1918. when peace will be declared.

A correspondent in an English paper asks the following questions: (1) Which is it worth most to do make bullets or to shoot them? (2)' Why should a labourer in munition works draw £C and up to £lO a week, and a tradesman wearing whaki less than 3s 6d per week, and his wife 12s 6d to live on and pay her rent? I don't see the equal sacrifice.

A Masterton resident who has just returned from the South Island states that potatoes are being sold at 4s (5d per sack in Oamaru. The Age says something is radically wrong when the price paid in Masterton is 16s per sack. The matter is one which should be investigated-by the Board of Trade. The Government will surely not permit potatoes to go to waste in the South Island while they are in keen demand in the North.

American Indians" with the Canadian troops on the Western front are wcnderrul scouts. This is not generally known. Nightly they go out between the trenches in No Man's Land and, without making the slightest noise or creating any disturbance, and without even firing a shot, they return to their posts, leading half a dozen or so Germans, from whom much valuable information has been obtained.

An elderly City of London merchant, who has the reputation of being rather absent-minded at times, has not felt very comfortable since the last air raid scare. He was walking along a busy West-end street when the rumour got around, and a lady promptly fainted in his arms. While assisting her into a neighbouring shop he relieved her of a small parcel which she was carrying, and absently put it into his pocket. There it was duly discovered by his wife, and on being opened found to contain a pair of lady's pink silk stockings. The man is still hard at work trying to get her to accept his explanation.

In the course of a recent street demonstration in Petrograd, a Serbian officer was perceived to be making particularly strenuous efforts to stir up the people against their Government. Asked to show his papers the "patriot" became uneasy. He was taken to the Serbian Legation to establish his identity. Here it transpired that, far from being a Serbian, he held the rank of lieutenant in the Austrian army. Slightly wounded and left for dead on Dobrudja front, he had seized the opportunity to relieve a Serbian corpse of its clothing and papers. Thus equipped, .he passed into Russia, - where, after medical care he commenced propaganda work!