The daily star-mirror., 1923-11-14

Sydney after voyage of 23 days
| Water, water everywhere, but neve
drop to drink-that is, of water
The boat, a Britisher, the Niagara
was wet territory, and had a bar. Th
German raider, the Wolf, seemingl,
had her wires all set to capture tn,
Niagara, which laid two days over
time at Auckland, thereby possibl,
evading her would-be captor, which
later made important captures in the
South Seas and Indian ocean, and at
| tempted to reach Germany with {
full complement Of prisoners, by 60
| ing away north of Ireland and Scot
land, to be wrecked on the coast o1
Norway, in sight, almost, of home
port.
Possibly word as to the compar-
ative area Of Australia and the Unit
ed States may be in order. The is
land continent, it appears, lacks only
some $4,000 square miles of being as
large as the United States. Cut off a
strip to miles in width along the
international boundary line and you
have approximately the area of Aus
tralia. Sidney, proved to be a city
of well onto a million inhabitants,
made up of a number of boroughs or
subdivisions, each with it's mayor and
town council, with lord mayor and
city council. Local self-government
and democratic institutions are, it
appears, not mere formulas to the av-
erage Australian citizen 1t may be
well to mention in passing that they
are almost wholly of British birth or
descent, and that dialects are COM
monty to be found, familiar to any
portion of the British Isles.
However, Mr.. Editor, what the
writer mainly set out to do was to
endeavor to tell your readers some
handling and so forth After a short
thing about their grain products, me-
thods of handling, equipment for
spell of sightseeing the writer was
cited to the firm of Lindley, Walker
& Co., firm of pre-war grain ex-
porters, the senior member or presi-
dent, of which firm, Mr.. G. W. Walk
er, of American descent, had spent
two months in the United States, as a
guest of Jim Patton, of oat corner
fame, investigating American meth
DDS of grain trading and principally
bulk handling.
The commonwealth government
had instituted compulsory pool in
other words it had commandeered the
wheat crops, during the early days
of the war, guaranteeing a minimum
of four shillings, say S1.00 per BUSH
ell, to the growers, f. 0. b. ship, or at
seaport, at least, and fine firms, of
which Ludley, Walker & Co. was one
and qualified to receive and handle |
as much as each could competively |
secure at country points.
My first experience with the firm,
however, was to attend at a booth |
by them at the Royal ag-
ricultural show, which lasted ten
days. Samples of grain grown in
the different sections, even of far
away western Australia, were on ex-
1ibition there, and with possibly
about four exceptions, all were vari-
eties unknown to the writer Marquis
vas being introduced Kharkoy- I
8aart was well known from early
ines; our Bluestem was practically
unknown and White Australian,
grown in the Inland Empire, to some
xtent, twenty-five years ago, was
Known as "Humpback". Neither of
hese were grown, to any extent.
Samples of first prize winning white
vheats. in their respective classes,
we're selected by the, writer. for in-l ,
lusion in tn firms collecticn, which
embraced varieties proven grown
rom seed obtained from a tomb in
egypt, said to have been buried for
Iome $500 to 5000 years, was in
luded in their collection The yari- ]
ties of wheat more widely grown,
owever, seemed to be about in the
ollowfng order; Bobs, Comeback,
federation and Florence, with Fed
ration and Hard Federation seem
ngly displacing other varieties.
In this connection it may be in
rder to remark that Hard Fedora
ion may prove out to be good sub
titute for our varieties of Club,
worthy of our wheat growers at
entiOn. 1t seems to have taken the
ancy of the growers in the Pendle-
On and Umatilla territory, and is
in high favor in Australia.
The live stock shown at this fair
yould no doubt compare with any
ling shown anywhere, with the pos
Ible exception of hogs. America
as them all beaten as hog pro-
ucer. But, their sheep! Well, it is
ome sheep country. 1t is a science
18th them.
Yours truly,
T r |