COUNTRY ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1952, 23 July 1891, Page 19

COUNTRY ITEMS.

Short new« paragraphs for thin oolamu we invited from oorro-

«pond<sntt and othen. Post Oasds mar be mcd.

A man named James Robert ion had his shoulderblade broken at CHenomaru one day last week through the limb of a falling tree striking him. In view of the establishment of branch freezing works at Mataura the Southland Froznu Meat Company are making a new issue of shares. The company show a surplus of assets of £16,385, and their last credit balance was £3824

TheTapanui Courier states that the opening of the Gtngo Central railway to Middlemarob. has materially affected the traffic from Lawrence to the centre of Otago, and thit in future the goods traffic above Speargrass Flat will be via Middlemarch.

A Sydney correspondent writes to a Ohristchureh contemporary complaining of the way in whioh Canterbury potatoes are sent to the Sydney market. He says that a shipment he saw were morn or lest inferior in quality, small, largo, and rough potatoes all being mixed together in anything but a marketable condition.

The project to start s rabbit and frulfc canning factory At Moa> Flat bus been pnatponed for four months la order that assistance and promise of support may be obtained for Messrs Olarke and Roberts, tbe latter of whom is at present in Eoglaad. Two thousand •even hundred and forty shares have been applied for, and the voting in arriving at thie decision was 510 to 480 shares.

Benders connected with the mining industry will be pleated to bear news of Mr Q. 3 Binns, who left for the Home Country a year or two back. The Burton Chronicle of May 14 contains particulars of the triennial election' of a school board. Mr Binns' name heading the list with 378 vtt.es, the next higbeit candidate being 99 behind. Mr Einns is evidently well appreciated in his native country. In answer to a correspondent, who writes com* plaining of the railway obarge on rabbits the Southland Times says :— " How would it do for the Government to carry rabbits free, as their contribution to the destruction .of the pest, and »weep away the whole of the coatly, ineffective, and irritating machinery now employed ? It would certainly give a wonderful impetus to private eff >rtin rabbit catching, and would permit of the canning industry being carried on all the winter, thereby increasing the export to a very large extent."