LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 16

LAKE COUNTY.

April 21?.—N02 I ?.— No snow and no rain, and both are badly wanted. It would appear that the people of Queensland and New South Wales are receiving a aurfelt of what we are lacking. Stack Fire.— l have to record the fourth stack firo occurring within a month, and the most remarkable thing is that in all oases incendiarism is discountenanced. The last disaster of this kind occurred during the night of Thursday and Friday last on the farm of Mr John Martin, Crown Terrace, destroying a quantity of oats and wheat, variously valued at from £100 to £200. There is no trace or clue to lead to the origin of the fire, and suppositions as to incendiarism are not sufficiently strong to justify their adoption as the cause. There was no insurance on the grain, which only deepens the mystery, and though the loss is the greater this circumstance protects tbe owner from unjust imputations. Signs op the Times.— Bread, which was sold here for 8d per 4lb loaf until lately, and whioh at Skippers and the Upper Shotover even now costs Is, has been reduced to 6d by the Qu°enstown and Arrowcown bakers. I remember the time when the 41b loaf fetched 5s in this district, and may add that there was then not so muoh growling at the price as there was recently at 8d for the artiole. Things are coming down, aud it is harder now to earn the 8d than it was formerly to make the ss. Obituary.- -On Monday evening last Mrs Wittleeea, who for a number of years had been staying with her married daughters at Maoetown, passed quietly away after a lingering illness, having attained the age pronounced by Scripture at the allotted span of human life. The deceased was buried on Wednesday last, when, in the absence of tbe Eev. Mr Falwasser, the Rev. Mr Burrows, Wesleyan minister, read the Church of England burial service.

Fatal Accident. — An aged man named Charles Darlington, a native of Cheshire, England, met with his death by a tree falling on him while cutting firewood at Halfway Bay, Lake Wakatipu, last week. It appears he had out a tree, which fell into another, and getting entangled did not then come to the ground. While orossoutting a log with another man the suspended tree came away and fell upon Darlington, who had moved away to escape the fate that overtook him. Had he stopped in his position the tree would not have touched him. As it was, a branch struck him near the temple, stunning him— if it did not kill him instantaneously, for the deceased never spoke after the accident. An inquest was held into tbe cause of death, and a verdict of " Accidentally killed while felling timber" was returned.