GENERAL NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 165, 21 October 1910, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS

A man who in March last possessed nothing but what lie stood up in, ana who, with some timely help in the way of advance, took up an area at Carina, in Western Malice (Victoria), to-day has a crop of about 409 acres of wheat growing, which, it is estimated, will bring him in .tlffiK) at least when sold. Scotch wit: Dr. Chappie's political opponent in the election fight for the Stirling constituency was Mr. R. fc. Home, a distinguished member of the Edinburgh bar, and well-known resident of the constituency which he aspired to represent in the House of Commons. During the election campaign, Mr. Home, at one of his meetings, got in what lie thought was rather a neat one on the j New Zcalander. "Gentlemen," lie observed—ladies were rarely seen at political meetings —"Gentlemen, I advise you to stick to the Home stock, and to have nothing to do with New Zealand mutton." (Laughter.) Like a flash came the retort from a Scotch wit at the back of the hall : "We can dae fine wi' the mutton, sir; it's the horns we dinna want." The laugh was the other way about then. •

Mr. Frederick Black, the well-known electrical consulting engineer, who recently reported on the New Plymouth trm.way scheme, in the course of a very hostile criticism of the Government's power proposals in the Post, says of the two scheme most discussed: —"Makuri and Waikaremoana, like most of the other schemes, will necessitate expensive aim lengthy transmission lines in order to reach insignificant markets. The people of Hawke's Bay province and the Northern Manawatu are ardent worshippers of these water powers, but are sublimely indifferent to the fact that an enormous consumption of energy would be required to put them on a non-losing footing'. Where is there the possibility of such consumption, even in 20 years' time? The people there may console themselves with the reflection that the State proposes to take all the risk and meet the heavy loss year after year."

Mr. Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave about sixty years ago, and who has done so much for the technical education of his race in the United States, was in Lonodn recently . He is a remarkable man and a great speaker. He told the Morning Leader that 45 years ago only 2 per cent, of the negroes could read or write. Xow 57 per cent, can do so. He puts the taxable property of the race at £120,000,000. "The last twenty years has seen an improvement in the feeling of American white towards the negro population. Of course, the bulk of the negroes live in the South, nine millions out of ten millions resident in the United States, and it is true not only of Europe, but in the States as well, that the worst things that hapoen in the Southern States are heard* of while the best are not. If there is a lynching, everyone knows of it, but if j colored people build a college or organise a bank or start a drug store, it "is ignored." Probably the most remarkable sentence ever pronounced upon a convicted prisoner was '' delivered recently by a Judge in New Mexico. It was a case of murder of a peculiarly atrocious kind, and in sentencing the prisoner to death the Judge remarked that his duty became a pleasure in this case. To the accused he said: "You are a young man, apparently of good physical constitution and robust health. Ordinarily you might have looked forward to many years of life, and the Court has no doubt you have, and have expected to did at a green old age; but you are about to be cut off on accountof your own act. It is now the spring time; in a little while the. grass will be springing up green in these beautiful valleys, and on these broad mesas and mountain sides flowers will be blooming; birds will be singing their sweet carols, and Natture will be putting on her most gorgeous and her most attractive robes, and life will be pleasant and men will want to stay. But none of this for you. Tlie flowers will not bloom for you, the birds will not carol for you; when these tilings come to gladden the senses of men you will be occupying a space about six bv two beneath the sod, and the green grass and those beautiful flower? will be growing above your lowly head." Thus a South Island correspondent writing to a northern paper; In dairy districts, he says, the mania for selling out is rampant. Within the last five or six years numerous settlers have sold or exchanged and left for pastures new. At the present time there are only about four settlers of ten years' standing hi our district. The selling out craze is not always a blessing either to seller or buyer. Selling out now-a-days means exchanging one property for another; there is no cash; both parties put on fictitious values, and very often one of them is minus all 'he owned. High rentals in many instances can be traced to the same source. I could quote several instances where land in two or thret. years doubled in price through exchanging, although deteriorating in quality. One case is worth recording. A settler from the United States took a farm at the top of the road. The place was in poor condition, and the rent double its value through exchanging., Being a newcomer, lie believed in the glowing accounts of the owner and agents with disastrous results. After working the place for over twelve months, and spending £3OO on stock, implements, seed and manure, he found that instead of making money he was losing; consequently, he held a clearing sale and departed a poorer man by £l5O. He is now in Australia, having had enough of this country. He was an energetic goahead American, and with half a chance would succeed anywhere. It is unfortunate that men of his stamp get hit, as the Dominion could do with a few thousand of them.