COUNTRY ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1977, 14 January 1892, Page 21

COUNTRY ITEMS.

Short news paragraphs for this column are infitol frojn corr* spondenti and othiT* Post Cards mij bo uscil.

A movement is on foot at Rivcrsdale to d?tal>lish a dairy factory for Waimea Plains. TJio milk of 200 cows has already been promised. The Southern Standard says that Mr Thomas Rankin has sold his purebred Ayrshire hull Robbie Burns to a Southern farmer for £'.h. Mr John Deans has presented the Canterbury A. and P. Association with all the prize money won by him at the late show, amounting to LlO. Two merino wethers in the Addington market last week had the extraordinary growth of nine horns between them. One had live distinct horns and the other four. The Coal Creek correspondent of tho luapeka Times thinks the Acclimatisation Society should import woodpeckers and swallows to tight the codlin moth and its larvas. • A la I named Miles, while bird-nesting in the Abhburton school grounds, fell from a tree through a branch breaking, and broke his jaw, his lips and tongue being also badly cut. We (southland News) . hear that Ranger D. Campbell seized, on behalf of the Crow n, a large quantity of fencing stakes and pasts on the SVoodbnrn run, in the Waiau district. At Waitahuna West on the sth in^t. a lad named James Nicholson received a kick from a hor.se which laid open the right side of hi.s face from the angle of the month upwards. Concussion of thcluain rcaiiltcd, but at last accounts he was doing well. The B-ithuiot burr ha 1 ? made its appearance in the North Inland. Some seeds were sent to Mi M. Murphy, of Chri.stchurch, last year for identification, and the matter was mentioned by Mr Murphy at the last meeting of the Canterbury A. and P. Association.

Uv \V. It. Yorke, representative of Alessr.s Boyde and Grant, the Liverpool butter merchants, has gone Home in tlie Coptic in consequence of impaired health resulting from intluciua. His hi other. Mr J. C. Yorke, looks after his jnteroots during his absence. The Mount I«lo Uhrr«iicle states that the commissioner of the Naseby Borough Waterworks Sinking Fund paid off LltilW of the sum of L 2090 due on the local waterworks, together w-ith accrued interest to the 31 -.t December la.st. The balance of LlOl has been renewed for two ye.ir» at a reduced rate of interest. The late Mrs A. T/iuder, who died on Christmas Eve, had been a resident of Fortrose for 17 years, and had been in the colony '27 years. Only a fortnight before her death the golden wedding of the aged couple was celebrated. She leaves a large ?.iiuily,all grown up, 2'! grandchildren (£0 of of whom followed her to the grave) and two great-iT.indchildren. A few d.iy» avo we (Ensign) were -in receipt of 11 sample of gra-MJS from Charlton, consisting of cow rass, aNyke, white clover, and ryegrasa which hid attained the length of some 30in. Probably the very favourable .season and the selection of the seeds had something to do with it, but the product goes a long way to disprove the popular fallacy " that clover won't grow" in the district referred to. A young man named John Vivian had a narrow e3eape at Mr J. Taylor's twine works atßalclutha one day last week. The belt was off the wheel and he was in the act of passing his hand through the spokes of the wheel instead of reaching over tlie top as he should have done, when the belt niUbt have been thrown on by some means, with the result that his left arm was broken above the elbow. The force of the wrench which he got threw Vivian off his feet and dashed him against the wheel, and the wonder is that he was not killed outright. Weasels (says the Southland Times correspondent) are increasing very rapidly around Wyndham. Mr Djnohne found one in his burn the other day, and has soon several in the paddocks about They seem to be much smaller than the Home weasels, but v icious enough in all conscience. There is no record of any weasels being liberated nearer than Glenurc and Caroline, and that was about nine years ago. Now, about Glenham and Mataura Island, they are frequently to be seen, and appear to do good work too, as a natural enemy of the rabbit. In commenting on the letter from Mr A. J. Bennett, of Manchester, which appeared in la.st week's Witness, the Oamaru Mail bays:— "Mr Bennett's letter should be accepted as affording some good indication as to the direction in which we might find new ru<tonic'.s for our produce. We have reason for believing that at piesent \crj little of our produce tnvK its way into the provinces, and that pivt'cally London is our only English market— a market, too, in which wo ha.vc to compete with all thereat of the world. Indeed, the question that has occasioned a great deal of thought without, so far, producing a satisfactory answer, has been as to the best means of get ting our surplus produce into the hands of possible consumers who still remain 1111-' reached. It i.s quite possible, that the letter from Mr Bennett, if it receive the consideration that its importance deserves, may lead, us to a solution of the problem. It must be borne in mind that wcie wo to fall in with the suggestion that Mr Bennett has thrown out, we should open up commercial relations not only with Manchester, but with Liverpool, and, by means of the canal system, we might even tap Leeds, Bradford, and a hrge extent of the West Riding of Yorkshire. In considering the question it is well to hear in mind the fact that Liverpool's volume of shipping trade i., at present equal to that of London, ami that with the construction of the ship canal from the Mersey up to Manchester, Liverpool and Manchester will in a very shoit time 1)0 practically united into one great city, monopolising the greatest portion of the maritime trade of England."