COUNTRY ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2006, 4 August 1892, Page 21

COUNTRY ITEMS.

Short news paragraphs for this column arc invited from oorre ■pondents and others Post Cards may bo used.

The Farmers' Agency Company report the sale of Mr W. F. Ward's farm at Cattle Flat 418 acres, at L 7 10s per acre. It is highly improved, and all buildings and fencing are in good repair. Mr W. M. Hales is the purchaser. Dr Copland has returned from his visit to the Home country, and Dr G. Anderson Copland, who has been acting as locum tenents for his father at Gore, has left for Great Britaiu to prosecute researches in medical and surgical specialties. A resident of the Fortrose distiict has had his toes so badly frost bitten that it is thought they will have to be removed. While journeying between Invercargill and Fortrose via Oteramika he got his feet wet on a frosty night, and foolishly took off his boots with the result mentioned above.

Our Portobello correspondent writes : — Very hard frost was experienced here last week and has cut off all the early potatoes in the district.

I am afraid they will not recover. The season has been a very unfavourable one for ploughing. None has been started yet as the ground is too wet to enable it to be prosecuted. The Leader says the machinery for Messrs Begg and Sheddan's rope and twine works at Glenomaru arrived by the Doric. Some idea of the value of the machinery may be gained when it is stated that the duty alone amounts to over L3OO. It is the intention of the firm to get a competent man from Home to manage the works. Mr Edward Townsend, who served two years at the Mataura Dairy Factory under Mr Linton, and also some time under Mr Anderson, of Edeudale Factory, has just received intimation that he has been appointed manager to the Morwell butter and cheese factory, Victoria, and left the Bluff by the steamer for Melbourne on Saturday last. The Clinton Rabbit Preserving Company is being wound up. In a letter to the Clutha County Gazette, a shareholder affirms that all the share capital amounting to nearly LIGOO has been lost, and there are liabilities amounting to L 1619, including wages, Ll5O ; rabbiters, L2BO ; and Ll4O due to seven gentlemen, who gave their promissory notes without any prospect of ever being repaid, The Bruce Herald says :— " Thcproprietor of the Bruce Dairy Factory has, as the result of account sales received of shipments of cheese to the Home market, intimated to milk .suppliers that the price for last season's supply would be the satisfactory one of 3Jd per gallon. This will be gratiliingnews, as judging from prices given to suppliers of other factories, 3d per gallon \\ as reckoned on. One farmer informed us that his cheque would be Ll6 more than he had anticipated." An Oamaru visitor to Naseby thus speaks of the monument erected in memory of the victims of the Kyeburn disaster :—": — " It is a worthy tribute of the public for a noble deed, and one that grateful parents will ever be able to look up to with satisfaction ; and will also remind them that the people are always ready to appreciate noble acts. The fund appears to have been expended in a careful and judicious manner, and the monument is a credit to the selection committee, and also to those who contributed towards the erection."

Among old New Zealanders at present at Broken Hill are Mr J. F. Edgar, formerly of the Tuapeka Times, who represents the Melbourne Standard, and Mr Leslie Norman, who is acting as correspondent to a Melbourne and an Adelaide paper. Mr Norman has been a little too free spoken in his comments on the actions of the uien on strike, and from a marked copy of the Silver Age .sent to us we learn that one day recently ho was chased for his life by an excited body of miners through the town, and only saved himself by taking shelter from his pursuers in the police camp.