LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A Hard Frost. The hardest frost of the year, 13.5 degrees, was recorded at Christchurch on Monday morning. This equals the hardest frost last year, but in 1936 14 degrees were recorded on August 3. Continuous Race Betting. "At country race meeting in Australia the aid of radio is invoked to make betting continuous throughout the afternoon,” stated the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon W. Lee Martin, at Auckland. He said his party had called at the Gawler course, some 25 miles from Adelaide, where, as soon as a race was run, the bookmakers commenced calling the odds on the next race at the Williamstown course, Melbourne. A description of the running of the latter event was broadcast at Gawler, and the bookmakers then opened their books on the next Gawler race. Patrons were thus able to bet on 16 races during the afternoon.

Sheep Worrying. Consideration was given by the Dannevirke Borough Council yesterday to recommendations made by the SheepOwners’ Union concerning measures to alleviate the sheep-worrying menace in Hawke’s Bay. Cr. H. Stratford considered the penalty for non-registration of dogs should be strictly enforced, with the aim of preventing the keeping of mongrel dogs. Sheep worrying was a serious problem, very prevalent in the district. Cr. P. Carmichael considered the law compelling registration should be more strictly enforced. Dogs that were worrying should be put out of existence irrespective of breeding. The chairman, Cr. A. Hansen, said that the council could support the union’s recommendations, particularly the increase of the penalty for the non-regis-tration of dogs.

The Poultry Industry. The importance of the poultry industry in New Zealand was shown in figures given by Mr J. H. Butler, of Christchurch, when opening the annual show of the Christchurch Poultry, Pigeon, Canary and Cat Club. He said that in 1874 there was a total of 1,058,198 head of poultry in New Zealand, representing 3.5 a head of the population. The total in 1886 was 1,679,021, or 2.9 a head; in 1906 it was 3,187,669, or 3.6 a head, and in 1936 it was 4,019,076, or 2.6 a head. The annual estimated production of eggs in the Dominion was 375,000,000, but the annual export of eggs in all forms amounted to only about 5,000,000. It was estimated that the annual consumption of eggs in all forms in New Zealand was 370,000,000. The average annual consumption of wheat by the poultry industry from 1933 to 1936 was 1,666,000 bushels.