PALMERSTON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 832, 13 December 1878, Page 2

PALMERSTON.

(fkom ocr off.x coßnEsroxDEvr.) December 13. Active preparations are being made for the coming show, which takes place next Friday. Our local implement manufacturer, Mr. Andrew Wilson, is getting ready an improved double-furrow plough. So far as I am a judge of these implements, I may say that they are of a very superior class, and show a large amount of practical knowledge and judgment in their construction.

Our local fisherman, Mr. M'Leod, continues to be successful in his operations against the speckled fish of the Shag river. Singularly enough, the trout in New Zealand will only rise to the minnow at night, nor will they rise to the fiy except, perhaps, by accident. This proves that the food of the trout in New Zealand is the minnow, and that our flies are not sufficiently plentiful and palatable for the fish. They are also excessively sly, so that the utmost care has to be taken in approaching the river bank. Mr. M'Leod, who is a veteran in the art, says that the reason why so many people lose their fish, is that they will keep too great a strain ;* the line, not calculating on the strength and activity of the fish. Pic relates that, on one occasion, he hooked a large fish which, in passing under a snag, broke his casting line. Having repaired it, he fished the pool up again, and, singularly enough, hooked the same trout, recovering cast. This proves that the fish liked the taste of Mr. M'Leod's minnow : but I do not think that, if a fly had been taken by the fish, it would have gone in for the best cast of red hackles remaining in the angler's book. This shows how one can get over our fish by strategy, It is also a proof of their instinct and rapacity. The smart showers we had yesterday, accompanied by thunder and lightning, have freshened up the face of Nature wonderfully, and our wheat and potato fields are looking very much improved..