THE ATTRACTIONS OF OTAGO CENTRAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 71, 29 March 1921, Page 9

THE ATTRACTIONS OF OTAGO CENTRAL.

(To tbe Editor.) gj rj —I have just noticed in a recent issue' of the "Otago Daily Times" a paragraph saying that a representative of your paper had seen ripe figs in an Astiburton garden, and that he wae greatly astonished thereat. Well, if he had come about 150 miles in an airline further south he would not only have seen figs, 'but also grapes and sweet, soft and hard-shell almonds ripe and ripening in quite a number of our local orchards. The shock may have been a hit severe to him. but -we would soon have cured all effects by a plentiful diet of nectarines, peache?, apricots, etc., which grow here in great profusion: in fart. I have been shipping them this season to your city and other northern towns. I know quite a lot of Vorth Island people think this is a cold spot, especially in winter; well, we have some cold snaps occasionally, tut we have quite a lot of hot snaps, which preatlv outnumber the cold ones. This has not been what we call a hot year, still for days at a time in December, January, and February, our thermometer has registered from 85 to 95 in the shade, and occasionally it went up to 100 and 104, which I think is a temperature that would satisfy even a printer's devil, let alone any other gentleman of the same breed. Here we "Tow grapes right out in the open, with bo walls or latum to twin them,

on, and they give abundant crops of fruit, varieties euch a* Albany Surprise. Temperano, Golden Ohasselae, Hermitage, Pineau Menieur (a wine frrape). Burmestra, Roea, 'Black and Muscat Hambro all ripen before the end of March. Some of them are ripe at the end of February, and almonds are ripening now. Cucumbers, pie and watermelons, equeehee, pumpkins, and maize prow -well, and produce fine results- In fodder crops we have lucerne (five crops in a year). I have stacked my fourth crop a week ago, and the fifth is well up. So I think you will agree with mc that this part of the south is not quite so frigid as come folks think. For about eight months in the year, when working in the orchard. I only wear a light pair of trousers, a thin woollen singlet, and cotton shirt, and during January and February I could be more comfortable without the shirt if I ccruld keep the sun from scorching my back. Our sunshine average is very high, and our rainy days few and far between. In two years we have had about six pood showers—what you would call a heavy dew in Auckland —and if one depended on thr rainfall, well, w e would be forced to emigrate to, cay, Auckland where I hear it does rain occasionally. Our annual rainfall over a period of 2.) years averaged 12in- Wo have frosty winters some years, and ocvaMonsillv a snowstorm that gets past the foothills to the plains, but not often— they have not done it for the last three winter?: but our winters are windless, with plenty of sunshine from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the cold, being a dry cold, it is not felt so much as they feel it on the coaet. In fact, it is the best climate in New Zealand for northern people to come to for a holiday. March to May ig our Indian summer, and the heat is just right then. This particular district is the only spot in New Zealand where all the' above conditions are found, I believe, and, although it is rifht in the heart of the mountains, ranging from 4000 to 5000 ft high, an J only 50 or 60 .miles from the alpim , lakes and placiere. it* temperature in slimmer is almost always the same as you experience in Auckland, with this exception, our air is extremely dry. both in summer and winter.—l a:n. etc., G. ■>!. MARSHAIX. Earnscleugh, Otago Central, 19/3/21.