Untitled

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3201, 31 December 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Southland Times reports that some maggots which were supposed to be the lnrvse of the bot fly, have beon found in the heads of sheep found dead on a station in that locality. A correspondent, however, to the same paper says he has known the maggot to be in existence in Southland for, at least, 25 years. He adds : —" The only sheep I have ever seen affected in this way were bred on high country. I was always under tho impression that the sheep suffered no inconvenience from their presence, but it is just possible that some of the mortality credited to tutu may have resulted from this magRot." A strong agitation is arising among the wheat-growers of Victoria against the use of the four-bushel bag for hulling wheat. It is contended that it is too heavy, and that m:>re work cnukl be (lone, aud done more easily, by adopting the American plan of small bags, weighing 1001b, rather than by the prevailing fashion under which a hag full of grain seldom weighs less than 2(iolb. The movement is backed up by the Victwrian Agricultural Press, the Farmers' Gazette urging that the matter should be taken up by the various agricultural societies, the grain merchants, and the railway commissioners. The day when it will be possible to travel from Melbourne to London in less than a fortnight (writes the London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus) is apparently not so remote as people imagine. A London weeklv journal discusses the project as being well within the limits of practicable enterprise. In view of the attention that has been given of late years to intercolonial railway construction from the Imperial point of view, it is maintained that the question of connecting Australia with the East by means of a railway across Asia will before long become a leading point of British-Australian railway policy. It is pointed out that tn connect Melbourne with London via Malacca by rail would not involve the construction of inure than 3700 miles of rails. This is admittedly " a big order,'' but not too big for an age that has witnessed the completion of several transcontinental railway schemes. The Indian railways would co-operate in thr, working of this grand Imperial route, ind so would the Porte, through whose territory for 1000 miles the line would run. The advantages of such a quick route in maintaining and strengthening the commericial relations between Great Britain aud the colonies are held to be a strong justification for the early execution of the project.