The following cablegram has been received and despatched in connection with the signing of the Peace Treaty. From the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor-general of New Zealand. ``The Peace Treaty with Germany was signed by representatives of the Allied and Associated Powers and by representatives of Germany to-day at 4 o'clock. The concluding article of the Treaty provides that the first process verbal of the deposit of ratification will be drawn up as soon as the Treaty has been ratified by Germany on the one hand and by three of the principal Allied and Associated Powers on the other hand; that from the date of this first process verbal the Treaty will come into force between the high contracting parties who have ratified it; that for the determination of all periods of time provided for in the Treaty this date will be the date of the coming into force of the Treaty, and that in all other respects the Treaty will enter into force for each Power at the date of the deposit of ratification-i.e., of the coming into force of peace.''
Rabbiting profits
The all-absorbing topic the traveller hears discussed as he moves about Central Otago just now is the gentle art of rabbiting and the prodigious sums of money that are being made this winter by those who devote themselves to it. It is agreed by old residents that never for 25 years past have rabbits been so plentiful, and it so happens that this lavish supply of them coincides not with low, but with exceptionally high, ruling prices. 4 10s a hundred skins is a standard rate, but 1s or even 1s 1d each may sometimes be obtained. Now a hard-working rabbiter with a good block to work on will have no difficulty in getting from 100 to 200 skins, or in other words, from 5 to 10 a day. In many parts a boy can go out with ferrets and secure from 60 to 100 a day as often as the weather is favourable. There are even stories current of men who have secured single-handed as many as 400 rabbits in their traps in a night, but this, if true, must represent the extreme upward limit of what is possible in the most favourable circumstances. As many as 3000 rabbits have been known to have been taken off a 1000-acre block in a few weeks' time; and a well-known runholder of long experience asserts quite confidently that two men who have been trapping on his 7000 acres recently have taken considerably more money from his run this season than he has.
Balclutha inventor dies
The death occurred at Nelson on Wednesday week of a well-known ex-resident of Balclutha in the person of Mr John Watt. Deceased was the inventor of Watt's water and gas system, of which installations were made by him in Gore, Balclutha, Dannevirke, and Pahiatua. He was a native of Stirlingshire, Scotland, and served his time to the plumbing and gasfitting trade.
After being in business in Glasgow for some time on his own account, he came out to New Zealand in 1878, taking employment with Messrs A. and T. Burt. Later he commenced poultry farming at Sawyers' Bay, and removed to Gore over 30 years ago, where he engaged in business as a plumber, and later established Watt's water gas plant for the Borough of Gore, the first municipal system of lighting in that town and the first installation of its kind in the colony.
- ODT, 30.6.1919
