COUNTRY ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 17

COUNTRY ITEMS.

Mr Mundie, of Waikaia station, bad some of his toes broken the other day through his horse falling on the road from Biversdale. The evening train to Orepuki, on.the 23rd, ran into a mob of horses, killing two, The previous night a cow was killed in the same manner. The Southern Standard says there are inquiries for* land in the Waimumu distriot. Settlers are not de' sirous of selling, and attention is being directed to unimproved land . The Mataura Enßign says that Mr S. N. Kingdon had 32 bags of wheat out of a stack containing 92 destroyed by fire, and others damaged the other day. Loss. £35 ; no insurance. The members of St. Mary's Anglican Uhurch at Palmeraton have presented to their honorary organist, Miss Josephine Arkle, a marble timepiece oa the occasion of her marriage. According to the Tuapeka Times six or seven horses have succumbed to attacks of the grip in the Tuapeka district. The only difference in the symptoms is that they are more acute in the horse than in man. The Mount Ida Chronicle says that though the attendance at thelate ram and ewe fair at Naseby was good, the animals offered for sale were few in quantity and mostly inferior in quality. The highest price realised was £1 14s for a Leicester ram. Morton and Sharp's neve flour mill, at the Clutha, is approaching completion. In the meantime the wheat will be stone ground, and dressed with roller dresiing machinery, but rollers will be added almost immediately. So soon as the flour mill is fairly started machinery will be added for the production of oatmeal. A Moeraki correspondent of the North Otago Times states that though there is a State school at Hillgrove none of the natives take advantage of it, and the young people are consequently growing up illiterate, none of them being able to read or write. The correspondent thinks the church authorities should do something to remedy this state of affairs. Three stacks of wheat belonging to Mr B. Perry, ToltiM, were destroyed by fire on Monday. A threßliiuj; mill belonging to Mr Joseph J. Wright was also destroyed. Mr Ferry's wheat was insured for £600, and the portion destroyed is valuedat £120 Mr Wright's threJbing mill was Insured for £100, ami an engine, of which the woodwork only was de trojvnl. was insured for £100 At a" meeting of the Gore Farmers' Club held lust week tlirt Bmall bird question came up for discussion, ami the following motion by Mr M' Queen was carried : "That the Gore Farmers' Club declines to take charge of the small bird poisoning en account of the expense of the work, but leaves the matter in the hands of the county council and road boards, the proper public bodies for the purpose." The mover contended that. £i OO was insuftioiont for the county, and £10 was no good at all to oope with the peeb in this district.

As an argument in favour of federation Mr G. M. jtoH, at the last meeting of the Gore Farmers' Club, said that by the intercolonial trade more revenue passed each week than by one of the direct boats, Whl<ih arrived Oftce a month. Mr H. S. Fish, K.H.8., considered Melbourne would step in and sniff out our manufactures, but that was not so— Our climate, products, and everything else were in our favour. Mr M" Queen thought the delegates who represented New Zealand at Melbourne did not represent the views of the t>eople. . Mr G. M. Bell, chairman of the Gore Farmers' Olub, in stating that 70,000 sheep would be sent away from the Biuff this year, said i— " It might appear a bold assertion, but he believed they would see more frozen sbfeep seHb away from the Bluff than Irom any other port In New Zealand. Only a few years ago the quantity of oats sent from the Bluff waß smalt compared with that sent from other ports ; but last year there were more oats sent from the Bluff than trom all the other New Zealand ports put together. He did not say oatß were the best things to grow, but they were grown and shipped, and the frozen meat industry would extend also. ' Mr Inspector MUes recently instituted Inquiries into the tenth of an assertion which went the round of the preßß a week or two ago to the effect that ft number of ferrets, which had been turned out on the hilly country between Lawrence and Waitahnoa, had been seen in a famishing state by a traveller who had been compelled to throw out some meat which he had In his trap, in order to get them to desist attacking him, Mr H. Cotton, of Waipori. in reply to a letter from Mr Miles, tells a verj different tale. He says that the ferrets are doing well, and if the snow is not too severe this winter he is confident they will do good work. He further says that there was no foundation for the story, which was merely told "for fun." A rather peculiar way of Indulging in "fun."

The balance sheet of the North Otago Acclimatisation Society shows the receipts for the year to have been £167 4s lid, and the expenditure £132 15s Id, leaving a credit balance of £34 9s lOd. ■ During the year the hatoh-househas been rebuilt, and new breeding races have been constructed at a cost of £if>o. The committee in their report say:— "From 53 recorded observations in a book kept for that purpose at Waitaki North, we find that on these occasions 169 trout were caught, weighing 11231b. The weights of the heaviest fi»b recorded were o r e of Hlb. one of 131b, two of 121b, four of 111b, and eight of 101b. The smallest was one of 31b. The best batkets were two of eight fish, weighing 601b eaoh, and one of six fish weighing 501b. The number of fishing licenses taken out continues to increase every year, being 116 this season, as against 13 eight years ago. The gainer licenses have decreased from 81 to 17 during the same period." The chairman stated that they had salmon some 18in in length in the ponds, and it was intended that these should be kept as stock fish, and stripped when ready. He thought that the society should set aside a certain sum yearly as a fund to be expended on the introduction of Balmon.