INTERPROVINCIAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 133, 12 June 1909, Page 15

INTERPROVINCIAL.

One of the earliest settlers at Waimate, Mr. Eilbert Abbenseih, died on Friday at the age of eighty-five years. He conducted the first flourmill in the Waimate district for the late Mr. Michael Studholme, at Willowbridge. The fine weather that is being experienced in Canterbury generally is also being enjoyed at Hanmer, writes the Lyttelton Times correspondent at Hanmer. There have been hardly any frosts yet, and the "oldest inhabil^nt" says that it is the first winter for thirtynine years in which there has been so little snow on the ranges. At Greytown last week, the Wairarapa Age reports that a young man named C. Bicknell, while loading pigs into a brake, had a finger bitten off by one of the animals. The Greymouth correspondent of the Otago Daily Times states that important developments are likely at the Kotuku oilfields in the near future on account of their acquisition by Mr. David Ziman, on behalf of a powerful London syndicate. The Egmont Agricultural and Pastoral Association's {show will be held at Hawera on Wednesday and Thursday. 24th. and 25th November. From £100 to £150 remains as balance from the rain-making experiments that were tried in Oamaru some time ago. It is suggested, states the Mail, that the money should be utilised for the erection of an observatory. The idea is finding some favour locally, and if the project is taken up, an effort will he made to obtain a Government subsidy. Timaru now boasts a new central battery telephone system, the most modern in use. A local paper states that thenew system is working without the slightest hitch. It is to a great extent automatic, and the work of tUe exchange is greatly reduced. Tn connection with the proposed establishment of freezing works at Ohiwa, states the Rotorua Times, the Whakatane County Press has been informed that arrangements have been made with certain shipping companies that if £7000 is subscribed locally the shipping com panics will finance the project to the extent of £14,000. The cost of establishing the works is estimated at £21,000, and canvassers are out in all parts of the district doing good work, and therefore there is every reason to believe that the successful launching of the company is a foregone conclusion. The purses of sovereigns presented to Messrs. Jones and Evans, for their services to Canterbury farmers in connection with the farm labourers' dispute, represented a value of ' between £600 and £700. A pathetic incident is recorded by the Marlborough Express: — Mr. George Boyce, of Blenheim, who recently went Home to Scotland for the purpose of seeing his aged mother once more, arrived at Colyton, his old home, just a day too late, as his mother died the day before. The old lady had reached the age of 80 years. Mr. Boyce and his family will hsvo the sympathy of many friends. A witness" in a case heard recently at the Auckland Supieme Court, states an exchange, was giving evidence as to the mental capacity of his son. was asked by the Hon. J. A. Tole, Crown i eolioitor, if, when his ton was about to < marry, he had warned his intended wife j that he was a bit peculiar. "Well," replied the witness, "he courted two or three girls before, but they_ gave him up, bufc this one cavight him." "This one fell in?" commentsd Mr. Tole inter- ' rogatively. What is believed to be a world's ang- i ling record this season has been estab- ' lished by Mr. Charles Fitton, of Ro- j torua. Fishing in the lakes of the thermal district between Ist November ana 31st May, Mr. Fitton landed 2256 fish, of which 2241 were taken with the fly. The heaviest fish was 16£lb, the average over 2£ib, and the total weight 63441b, or two tons 16cwt. 721b. of trout. — — — - i The roads back from Huntei-vilJe (re- ' ports the Rangitikei Advocate) have never been in so good condition at this time of year as they are at present. The Watershed-road has been quite dusty, , and Mr. M'Lachlan, the mailman, informs us that he has never before been able to do without pack horses in June. The muttonbirders who have returned ' to the Bluff (says our correspondent) have been comparing notes, with the result that they are moro convinced than ever that these birds now flock together on a more defined basis than heretofore. ' There are two species — one a mottled frey, the other a small, scraggy black, 'hp latter has been confining "itself almost entirely to the west end islands, while the other has, more exclusively | than ever, been roosting on the eastern islands. Indeed, the further one travels east the more numerous they seem to become. ' The Ruapuke islanders, who have just returned from their snaring grounds at Green Isles, have reaped a plentiful harvest — in excess of any ol their previous recollections. — Otago Daily Times. It is stated by the Auckland Star that a lady resident of Whangarei, who has power of discovering underground water by divination, has also found that she possesses the mysterious power oi locating coal seams, in searching for water she was puzzled by having a, strong contrary attraction.' On one occasion, when in a building at Whaugarei, under which a considerable quantity of coal was stored, sho felt almost an irresistible inclination, and in making further investigation as to the cause, found the existence of coal. Sho has since tested the matter in various %ydya, and found the attraction was invariably due to the existence of coal. Since then it is stated that the lady has done a good deal to assist in locating coal <leposit* in Whangarei, and in preventing useless boring in unfavourable positions It is stated locally that if further investigations are satisfactory the lady'& ssrvices will be requisitioned to locate a coal seam in Northern Wairoa, of the existence of which evidence has already been soenred. When Mr. Millar was complaining the Other day of the small return from the Waipara-Cheviot railway, he was bound to admit tnat the country Fervtd by tnt. line ought to t)» supplying a much larger volume of traffic. The truth is that the liuge estates lying about the route are blocking the settlement for which the railway was designed. And what is true ! of the Waipara-Cheviot line is true ol a score of other lines in the country. Land settlement is always the ITest investment the Stato can undertake, and it has the special advantage of being more profitable in bad times than in good If the Government would acquire one of the large estates in the Amun district this winter and put on men to prepare the subdivisions of the property for* occupation in the spring, it would solve the unemployed difficulty in Canterbury at the most trying time of the year, and would make a substantial profit out of the land and the labour.— ■Lyttelton Times.