PUERUA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1933, 25 February 1892, Page 20

PUERUA.

FiciJIUJAKV 15.— 1t seems in vain to expect a perfect season here, and sooner or later we cet some unseasonable weather. We had a splendid spring and summer for the crops, and there seemed promise of a bountiful harvest, hut suddenly our pleasing anticipations are rudely dispelled by the advent of a great east wind flood, which seems to have done a vast amount of injury >Jn some places, though the crops about here on the higher land have not suffered much, and arc several of them very fine, both wheat and oats. After the dry seasons we have lately had I think the ground required a good soaking, but such a large and sudden flood was rather rough on us. 1 1 think I have only seen the Puerua river higher 'once within a quarter of a century. ' Shropshire Down Mutton.— l lately had the pleasuro of partaking at the table of Mr George Scott, of Waitutu, Port Molyncux, of a leg of his Shropshire Down mutton. Truly a noble leg of mutton, both for size, shapo, and taste. It ate short, something like venison, though it had only be^en kept about a week. The fat is white, firm, and sweet, and there was a nice kernel of fat in the centre of the leg. It was Shropshire Down mutton, from the flocks of Mr Grigg, of liongbeachv the great breeder of this class of sheep, that Lord Onslow sent to his friends in England. Probably the butchers at Home would get a high price for this sort of frozen mutton, and it is unsatisfactory that the producer of it here can get \no more for such splendid meat than the ordinary price. Flower Show.— Our horticultural sho>y was a Success this year, there being many exhibits, and a large number of people in the hall iv the evening. I believe, however, several of the principal exhibitors are very much dissatisfied because tlFere were no prices, or at least that precedence was not accorded by qualified judges. Ropk Walk.— Following the example of Mr Taylor on the Molyneux river, several residents here, Mr Alexander Begg and others, have, I hear, concluded to start a rope walk for the Tlianufacture of binding twine and other sorts of rone out of New Zealand flax. Sawmill.— Mr Graham Dawson has become the proprietor of the sawmill here. Postal. — We have got the telephone here now. It is likely to be useful to the district. The late alteration in the njail is highly inconvenient, and unsatisfactory. Before the alteration you could answer a letter the day succeeding the arrival of it. Now if you get a letter here on Friday by the mail,' it seems it would be the following Wednesday befoi'6 an answer would he forwarded to Dunedin. if the letter was posted a.t Puerua. Roads.— The county counoil is favouring us with two or three chains of metal on a bad bit of the road here, but the new metal might as well have been extended a few more chains, &o as to meet the other metal already laid. Accident. — A few weeks since, while MiAlexander Allison was returning home from Stirling witfi his wife and one of his daughters in his buggy, the horse shied at some milk cans placed at the side of the road, Mrs Allison falling or being thrown out of the b«ggy, and sustaining a . fracture of the arm. This is not tho first accident that has occurred through the exceedingly dangerous and reprehensible practice of leaving milk cans at the side of the public road, whereby horses may be startled.

Ball. — There was a good turnout at tho ball at the Puerua Hotel a week or two since for the benefit of Dr Barnardo's waifs and strays. AVith the money taken at the doors and that paid over to Mr Patterson by non-attendants at the ball, the amount received will be about Ll2. This is pretty good from Puerua, especially as somewhat of a like sum has for several years now been contributed.

Fish. — Twenty thousand young brown trout have lately been turned into the Puerua, being put in higher up the river than before. They seemed to be all lively and in good condition. Mr Dean expressed himself as being highly pleaded with the Puerua river