PROVINCIAL NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8111, 16 May 1906, Page 3

PROVINCIAL NOTES.

(By our Travelling Representative.) The Waimate Plains are showing up well for this time of year from a grazing point of view, there being a line crisp growth of grass. The cold weather thongh, has had the effect of patting the cows off their milk with greater rapidity than usual. Mr F. L. CaDmng, o; Norman'oy, at one .time associated with the Daily Niwß, and well-known in New Plymonth, is just recovering from a nine weeks' illness. He suffered a relapse from an attack of influenza, and inlla mationset m.

, The Hawera Electric Lighting Co. ' .will probably commence at an early date stone-crushing operations. Opposite the powerhouse on the Normanby road, there is a fiat plot of ground, 'several nerc> in extent, which the com- ' pany h .ro been advised-is probably an old stone bed. Should this prove to be so, stone-crushing machinery, costing about £SOO, will be immediately put in. The company have any quantity of power to work the machinery, so that the cost of crushing will be very light. There is . any amount of demand for crushed metal in the locality. The Hawera County Council will pay 5s per cubic yard for a large amount. Good stone is hard to pro-

cure, and the Mount Egmout quarries j will be unable to supply the immediate demands for some time. Should the aforementioned field not prove sufficiently rich in stone, the company will coi sider the advisability of installing a plant on the beach, with high tension wires to work the machinery, and a tram line on to the Main South road. Mr F. McGuirc, ex-M.K.R. for Hawera, who has just returned trom a trip to the Waikato and northern districts, states that settlers and farmers in those localities have experienced a very prosperous season. Money is plentiful in the towns, and there is a general air of prosperity. Some of the horses recently affected with strangles in the Hawera district have had a very bad run. instead of getting over the trouble after the usual syuiptons, the disease seems to Jcvclope further, the beast being affected by general listlessucss. Large lumps form on various parts of the , animals. These become hard and will not burst and discharge without ' frequent fomentations. Even then f the lancet has sometimes to be used. This form of strangles must be of an aggravated kind. Horses affected require careful treatment for a much longer period than those affected by the ordinary throat strangles.

Another disease which is attacking horses generally in the same locality is

a rash or series of little festers which come out on the coat. The hide becomes hard and dry and doited over with little lumps. When (he horse is heated these eruptions burst and discharge. A farmer along the Street road discovered recently a very fine hive of bees in a rata tree, and lost no tune in robbing the insects of their treasured hoard. To give some idea of the size of the hive it may be mentioned that a 25-gallon milk can was filled with pure honey from the comb. The oat crops grown in southern Tnranaki have not turned out al all well this year. In fact the showing of grain has been so small that farmers arc cutting their stacks into chaff instead of threashing them.