COUNTRY ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 21

COUNTRY ITEMS.

Short news r&ngrtphs for thl« column tre invited from corre fondents and othorn Post Cards may ho ut><d.

James Samson and Co. sold privately Mr Holland's property, consisting of 100 acres on Maia

road near Blueskin, to Mr J. H. Bunce, for the sum of Ll9O cash.

The canvassers report having received applications for 1000 shares in the proposed Oamaru Farmers' Co-operative Association. This is only half the required number, and an additional three weeks is to be allowed for a further canvass of the districts not yet visited.

The annual report of the Tai Tapu Dairy Factory Co. (Canterbury) shows that the company is in a sound condition, and a dividend of 6 per cent, was declared. The price obtained for butter during the year was lljd per lb, the amount paid to suppliers averaging 10J per lb. In a letter to the Advocate Mr 11. M. Davey t engineer, suggests the dredging of the Taieri river as a preventive against damage by floods. Mr Davey says that there is no cheaper, and certainly no more effective way of confining the river within its banks than dredging, for every ton taken out of the river and properly distributed on the bank means far more than carted material from the land ; and several persons who have been told that it is possible a dredge may lie put on the Taieri say it is astonishing that it has not been done years ago. The Duntroon correspondent of the Oamaru Mail wrote on the 17th :—": — " At ahout half-past seven on Monday evening, Mr Prydc, of the Terminus Hotel, while driving home to Duntroon from Oamaru, attempted to cross the Maerewhenua, but, not seeing the tracks very clearly, and in the absence of any friendly guide posts or marks, he entered the stream a little above the new ford. The horse almost immediately sank into a deep bed of silt, the buggy also settling down to well over the axles. Mr Pryde jumped out and scrambled to the horse's head, but, soon finding himself powerless in such a depth of sludge, made his way with some difficulty to the back of the buggy. A number of willing halpers from the township were shortly on the spot with horses, planks, etc., and efforts were made to extricate the unfortunate horse from his uncomfortable position, the men working in mud and water to their waists for beveral hours, when the bitter cold compelled them to desist for a time The poor beast, still alive, was eventually dug out at about 9 o'clock the following morning, and the buggy drawn out uninjured."