LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2157, 27 June 1895, Page 22

LAKE COUNTY.

Junk 22.— 0f all the bad weather that has been raging round us on all sides for the past peven or eight cloys very little has come our w»y to annoy us. Kain, suow, hail, sleet, frost, aud mild thaw we have had in turn, but none of it to an> aluruiing extent. However, outdoor work such as ploughing and sluicing has been much interfered with. Serious, Very.— The death rate of the district for the last two or thre* years has been an unusually high one. Diphtheria, which is now pretty well stimped out, uibdesad havoc amongit ourjoung people; unatasoiiable weather proved too much for many of the old ones ; fatal acci--dents of all kinds h.ive been uncommonly frequent; and altogether our population h.vs bad. a serious thinning out. To make matters worae, there has been a notable falling off in the number of marriages, and if both causes continue much longer the Wakatitiians will tiec>-me t-xtinct as a race. To avoid such an unde^irai'le cou«umm«tion we shall have to import a number of the unemployed to help to keep up the stock, which ha 3 proved 'tfelf to be tui excellent one. Narrow Escu>e —Mr S Rogers, while driving a spriug cart to Mace'own, found the ioad pirtly blocke i by a lai.d.ilip at a point where theie is a nasty precipice just below the road. The cart being top ht»avy and tilted up by the slope of the landslip, turned ovor at the critical p'liut. Fortunately 10ft or 12ft drnvn was a portion of an old tuick, which sived the cart falling over a clear drop of 40ft orSO/t. Mr R<jg«»r- had fortunately left the cait in time, and to lvtwb it he had to go after it by lettinp himself drop down, in doing which he sustained some |. raises and cuts.