Each of these insects holds a record in his particular line, but as a champion in the way of destructive industry, the ant must be awarded the palm.
According to the story told to a Sydney Daily Telegraph representative by Mr W. R. Hayes, a surveyor in the Territory, the white ant is bent upon exterminating everything in the district except himself. He is no daylight worker, but toils incessantly in the dark.
He has attacked the forests of the place, and the ironwood which will gap an axe yields to the insidious power and the never-ending industry of this insatiable insect.
The result is that there are acres of forests with trees like empty shells, the inside having been cleaned right out.
An entomologist is engaged searching for the white ant's natural enemy, or some other means of combating it, but up to the present the scientific investigations have been of no avail and the ant pursues his dark and relentless course, devouring everything between himself and daylight.
• On a rough estimate not more than 50 or 60 tons of margarine is produced every week in Australia.
The next few weeks, says a Melbourne paper, may witness the first stages of definite competition between butter and a specially refined variety of margarine manufactured specifically for table use.
One of the largest milk and butter purveying firms in Victoria is responsible for the new departure.
It is further stated by several leading manufacturers in Melbourne that a large Sydney firm, with Pacific Island sources, intends to extend greatly the manufacture of deodorised vegetable oils with a view to producing an oil suitable for use as the basis of refined margarine.
• The prevalence of cockroaches in two of the old wooden wards at the Auckland Hospital was touched upon by Mr P. M. Mackay at a meeting of the Hospital Board.
He mentioned that in certain parts of these wards there were, without exaggeration, thousands and hundreds of thousands of the insects.
Shipmasters, he understood, were often troubled in a similar manner, and therefore, he considered that inquiries should be made from shipping companies with a view to finding a cure.
The house manager mentioned that a remedy suggested by a shipping company had proved very useful previously, and that he had just procured a further instalment of the remedy.
• In honour of the Otago Industrial and Gala Week, to be inaugurated today, Signor Squarise, who is well known in musical circles in Otago as the capable conductor of the Philharmonic Society, has composed a march entitled ''Onward Otago''.
As befitting the title, the composition is a bright and optimistic one, with few intricacies, making it well within the ability of all young players to perform.
A brilliant opening in E Flat is followed by an inspiring passage in four flats which is in turn succeeded by a tuneful trio in the key of D flat, containing pretty counter-melodies.
The march, which has been very neatly printed in clear characters by the Caxton Printing Company, is well worth its purchase as a piece of good music, and a fitting souvenir of Gala Week.
The proceeds of the sale will be divided between the Dunedin Expansion League and the Dunedin Philharmonic Society, so that purchasers of the march will also assist in the good work being done in different directions by these bodies.
- ODT, 24.3.1914.
