PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1499, 7 August 1880, Page 6

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL ITEMS.

Messrs Reid and Gray are fitting up a doublefurrow plough and set of harrows to Bend to the Melbourne Exhibition. The articles are finished in such a manner as to worthily maintain the reputation of the firm. A specialty in connection with the plough, which has a particularly taking appearance, is that it is fitted with a swivel coulter ; and the harrows have an improvement in the draught, being made lighter in front than usual. The following is a cheerful piece of information, if true :—": — " An American paper of May 14th says :—• South- Western Minnesota has just been visited by Mr Foster, who was de« puted by 500 Lincolnshire farmers to inspeot New Zealand, with a view of reporting to them as a spot suitable for them to emigrate to. He was so favourably impressed by Minnesota that he will recommend his countrymen to come here instead of going to New Zealand.' " This, however, is contradicted by the following telegram from Auckland, dated July 29th :— " Mr Milne, the agent of Messrs Grant and Foster, the Lincolnshire delegates, says the report of those gentlemen, which is eminently favourable to New Zealand, will be here by next mail." A farm of 10 acres at Halswell in Canterbury, on the 31st ult., was sold by auction to-day at L2O an acre, after a spirited competition, In Aris' Birmingham Gazette of May 22nd there is a long article on Land and Farming in New Zealand, dealing principally with the advantages this Colony offers to the British farmer as a field for immigration. Saturday's Oamaru Mail says : — "It will be gratifying to farmers holding large quantities of wheat and oats to learn that|improvements have taken place in both cereals. We have heard of a case in which 3s lid was offered for a large parcel|of wheat, and refused, 4s being demanded, with the stipulation that unless the transaction was closed to-day it would be withdrawn. Long oats are now quoted at Is 2d and milling oats at Is 6d.» The Loch Aire, from London, brings a very valuable Clydesdale entire for Mr R. Wilkin of Canterbury. *Two entires were shipped in London, but one, called Hucksall, died on the passage. The other is named Chancellor of BlackhalL '** Our East Taieri correspondent writes:— "The winter has come and gone. There has been very little to retard from work, ploughing is now well ahead, and early-sown crops are tolerably forward. The winter sowing, however, is getting less every year. The turnip crop has turned out much better than waß at one time expected, and the grass has fairly sprung, but I am afraid, it ia the early spring which means a scanty summer. In some places the land is being got ready for the first planting of potatoes, and the sowing of carrots and mangolds. The district on the whole is very quiet, and wages are lower, and employment scarcer than it has ever been before here. Some farmers who used to employ three or four men are doing their work themselves, and the example will be followed by others." Pigß must be scarce (says the Mataura Ensign). A gentleman, who haß a large quantity of grain on hand that he can'b dispose of to advantage, determined to try and secure 500 pigs to fatten up on the grain for sale. He traversed the Gore, Tapauui, and Waikaia districts, and sucoeeded in getting seven somewhere near Waikaia, but the 493 still remain unbought. Speaking of the Impounding Ordinanoe, the same paper says :— We think it is time the Impounding Ordinance was made more workable. As it at present stands no person can impound cattle trespassing on his land unless the fences enclosing it come within the description of a " sufficient " fence as defined by the Fenoing Ordinance. Not half the fences in the country come within such definition, so that unless the owner of the land is willing to run the risk of an aotion for wrongfully impounding oatfcle, he

has no other resource than to turn the cattle quietly off the land on to the road, and either grin and bear the damage done, and the annoyance to whioh he has been put, or brnig an action, thereby necessarily involving not only the wrongdoer but himself in law expenses, with the chance of his case breaking down through some technicality, and his being mulcted in heavy costs. The pound is a very old and useful institution, but as now constituted most people are frightened to take advantage of it.