INTERPROVINCIAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 143, 16 December 1908, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL.

IN TOWN AND COUNTET. The Eltham Dairy Company will (according to the Argus), this month pay out £10,600 for milk supplied, being at the rate of ll£d per 1b for butter-fat. Last month 260,2921b of butter were manufactured. The average test was 3.44. It is curious to note the consistency of the test for the month of November for the past three years. The figures are : 1906, 3.45 ; 1907, 3.43 ; 1908, 3.44. . Reports from the country districts (records the Oamaru Mail) state that in some places, severe frosts last week injured the potato crop to a considerable extent Mr. Angus M'Pherson, an Australian prospector, has just completed an expedition up the Grey Valley undertaken by him to locate a tin lode. 'I he Grey Eiver Argus publishes ay a-ccount of the result of the search F" &*s not exactly found what he was af t er. h-n 1 he has discovered quite enough to c<.iAsi^ anyone that a lode exists. B> trough' back with him * a saucer Mi of uearh- jet black stream tin and c lump of stannite broken off a hundred-^oight boulder he came across in the creek, besides a little bag full of ore specimens of the country vock. The stanuite, he reckons, at the lowest estimate, contains six per cent, of tin, which is much more than the ore stuff worked so successfully at Mount Bischoff, Tasmania, where Mr. M'Pherson was stationed for years, and gained a great deal of his experience regarding tin mining. The locality in which his prospecting has been carried on is the righthand branch of the Big River. A gentleman, who had occasion to travel throughout the greater part of the Longbeach district the other day, stated to the Ashburton Guardian that he was astounded by the depredations of small birds on crops. "In some instances," he said, "the birds havo stripped fully a third of the groin," which, he added, "is still far from being ripe. 1 ' The Waikato Independent reports that a swarm of bees took charge of a postal pillar box near the Methodist Church, Cambridge, and the letter carrier had to secure the assistance of a wellknown apiarist before ho could obtain possession of the mails. Although a large number of ' houses have been erected in Hastings since last summer the supply, says the local paper, is still far short of requirements. ' The local land agents find it impossible to find houses for even a third of the daily enquiries. For some years past little organised attempt has been made to qelebrate the anniversary of Canterbury, 16th December. This year, however, the formation of the Old Colonists' Association has enabled an important step in this direction to be taken. It has been arranged that a commemorative pillar shall be erected on the spot in Hagley Park, where. the Bowen family and others who arrived by the Charlotte Jane erected their huts. This is to be the first of a series of similar memorials that the association intends to erect. The ceremony will be performed by the Hon. C. C. Bowen, Speaker' of the Legislative Council, who is a member of one of the families who camped on the spot. The ceremony will take place at noon on the river bank at the rear of the United Bowling Club's pavilion. In the evening, at 8 o'clock, a social gathering will be held in the old Provincial Council Chamber, the use of which has been granted by the Government. The present summer is apparently going to be just as dry a one as its last two or three predecessors in Central Otago (says tho Dunstan Times), and unless heavy rains come at an early date the drought will have just as serious effects. For the past three months only 1.74 in of rain have been recorded at the Clyde gauge, the returns being — September 0.76 in, October 0.75 in, and November 0.23 in. As hot dry winds have prevailed during nearly all that period, the whole country is now in a very parched condition, and watercourses which promised exceptionally well after the last winter are now failing fast. The Wanganui tramways were officially opened yesterday afternoon. The cars were filled up till the last trip., and everything went satisfactorily. Four cars are being used, but another is now being constructed. A ten-minute service is being run. Three boys, two of whom were thirteen years of age, and the other fourteen, were brought before the Port Chalmers Juvenile Court a few days ago and pleaded guilty to smoking cigarettes in the street. After the- boys had been cautioned against a repetition of the offence, the charges were dismissed.