GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1920, Page 9 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

''For my part, New Zealand will do roe in future," was the comment ou what he had seen on his travels by Mr. H. Hollander, of Christchurch, in an interview by a Lyttelton Time* representative. "The standard of comfort and tlie home conditions are a delightful change after,, some of the places and conditions we saw during our twelve months' trip to Europe and America. Altogether, I am satisfied that the average New Zealander does not known quite how well off he is, when his lot is compared with that of the working and middle classes in the countries we have visited."

Australia, is a country where it is stated fortunes may he made in one season and lost in the next. A gentleman who has just returned to Levin after a lengthy stay in the Commonwealth quotes' a typical instance of this. In 1002 a bullock driver on the road ii: the back country cam*, across an abandoncd station, left by the. owner on account of the drought. The bullock y liked the look of the country, and turning his bullocks out went back to the nearest land oflice and registered the property, which was a leasehold. Shortly after rain came, and with it the grass. He stocked up the station, and after that never looked hack. The exbullocky is now in a big way, and among his recent, business transactions was the cancelling of an offer for 7!>00 fat stock, involving something like £'40,000, preferring to hold till a later period,—Chronicle. Conditions in China, owing to famine, are graphically, described by Mr. John Falls, an Aucklander, who has been attached to the China Inland Mission in the province of Shansi, North China, for about twenty-five years. In a letter to his brother, who resides in Auckland, Mr. Falls says:—"The famine in the [ provinces of CWJi, Shantung, and North Honan is terrible. . Over large tracts of country the people have had no harvest for a whole year—people who always live from hand to mouth. Kven the peed grain has had to be eaten, and now that splendid rains have come and autumn wheat can be planted they have no seed lo plant. In order to save the lives of the children, many parents are selling them for a mere pittance—two or three dollars. This opens the way for unscrupulous dealers to traffic, in children. Jiwt think, it will be eight months at le-isl, even in Honan, before the wheat that is now being' sown can be reaped! The reports are that -10,0(111,000 are involved, luit at a moderate estimate some '20,000.1)00 have no food and will need relief immediately. Many have already died, and thousands have had to leave their homes and emigrate, undor the hardest conditions, to adjacent provinces. To give a moderate measure of relief to all the hungry, it is estimated it will take £25,000,000. but a sum like that is not easily raised in a hurry. All the officials in Shausi are assessing themselves, and our Coventor alone has given . '£'4-500. Peking is makling a great effort, and the whole foreign community in tho ports is organising and giving liberally. 'Very extensive relief works are beng organised to provide work for the men.—New Zealand Herald.