GORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1890, 10 February 1888, Page 17

GORE.

February 7.—- The weather of the past week has been but little better than that of the preceding one. The gale that swept over Gore on Tuesday, the 31st January, with hail and heavy rain, left enough snow on the top of the Hokonuis to be easily perceptible from Gore the following moruine. The great ridge of the Tapanui Mountains (about 20 miles off, reaching about 3250 ft in height, and therefore 1000 ft higher than the Hokonuis) was thickly capped with snow for two days af cer the storm ; and all the district ranges that we can see to the northward beyond the Waimea Plains and round the. headwaters of the Nokomai, Waikaia, and Pomahaka have been clothed in snow almost from head to foot ever since, and make a glorious sight from here when the pun shines upon them. It is some consolation in such an unattractive spot as Gore to have something magnificent to feast one's eyes on now and then by just going a few hundred yards out of the township ; but what the poor beggars of newjyshoru sheep or their still poorer owners must think of all this midsummer snow is quite another thing. They probably make use of 11 cuss words," as our friend "Pasquin" says, in their respective native tongues. More hail and storm on tho morning of Friday, the 3rd, a strong gale the next day, and a tremendous downpour all Sunday afternoon.and night, and another terrific gale all last night form the weather record here for this last week. And all this time the weather has been comparatively fine in Dunedin, which is aggravating ; the only storm recorded in the Ofcago Daily Times weather report being on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 31st January.

The Crops. — After all that has been said about the weather, it is not to be wondered that there are no signs of harvest beginning hereabouts. The damage to grass seed and hay must be considerable, but if the clerk of the weather will only turn off the tap and give us a week's sunshine tho farmer will not bo so badly off after all.

Sporting. — It will be remembered that it was decided at a meeting of the Gore District Jockey Club held here on Saturday the 28th January, that a race meeting should be held at Mandevilleon the old Wantwood course on Tuesday 6th March ; a .sub-committee was formed to deal with the advertising question, and a terrible storm in a teapot has arisen. The storm has been quelled at last, and ib is hoped that everything will now run smoothly.

Things Judicial.— For the last two fortnightly sittings the R.M. has had nothing to do, and the lawyers are all grumbling in consequence. The correspondence in the columns of the Otago Daily Times about "Legal Delays at Gore" i.s very amusing from an independent point of view. For all that, a wide public question is opened up by the very narrow private question that has caused all the fuss. Assuming for a moment that the mayor of a borough has an iudisputable right to sit as a justice of the peace whenever and wherever he chooses, is it a good thing for the colony as a whole, and does it tend to the purity and dignity of the administration of justice (never mind how trilling the matters to be decided upon) that anyone elected to act as mayor of a borough, however small, and chiefly to control such matters as the municipal and sanitary matters of tho borough, should necpssarily be considered sufficiently qualified to bu invested with the far greater power of sitting as an administrator of justice, civil or criminal ? Directly-elected judges are the greatest curse of America, and it; is to be hoped that our legislature will see fit to stop the practical introduction of such a vile system in New Zealand.