UPPER TAIERI.

Otago Witness, Issue 2170, 26 September 1895, Page 24

UPPER TA IERI.

September 23 —A severe gale of wind has been raging here for several days in succession, with the result that millions of tons of mow have been swept from the mountain heights. An immense volume of water hns been thundering down the Taiari river, and traffic of all descriptions is entirely suaponded. A large area of the Upper Taieri plain is covered with water, and presents in the distance the aprearance of an inland lake, Fears were entertained here last week that a flood at the Lower Tuieri would inevitably ensue if rain ■et in during tho hdeht of the gale. Fortunately for our Lower Taieri friends the rain held off. Mikino.— After a lengthened period of enforced idleness consequent on the severity of the winter Mouths, the miners are hurd at work, in several instances effecting repairs to their water races constructed along the mountain faces, which have been damaged by a heavy rush of wa'er down the mountain tides through the rapid melting of the heavy enow drift*. Some of the water races have be?n badly dtmeeed, And it will take a considerable time, as well ac a heavy outlay, to put them into an tfficient state of r«pair. Wholbsale Burning.— The current winter has certainly struck home some, telling facts to the large ftockowners in this distriot as well as elsewhere. For yean in the pa«t an indiscriminate course of burning off the rough grata in the higher regions of the dutrict ha« been carried on on an extensive scale that is much to be deplored. Owing to the depth of snow, the rough snow tussock would bare afforded a bite to the starving *keep in the back country, and probably b*ve saved hundreds of sheep that have perished through sheer starvation ana exposure Vow that the anow his disappeared from the deep gullieo, it is worthy of note that dead sheep end dead bun pies lie aide by sidn, and an a last retort to sustain life they h >ye stripped the bark from the scrub, and then succumbed to the fury of the element*. Skrpentine.— The residents tn the Siberian xegiou of the Serpentine hs.ro experienced a pretty hard time of it during the past winter mouths. The township, like Jerusalem of old, should be at unity with itself, for it is situated many miles' distant from its neighbours. The residents have at length made acquaintance with mother earth, after walking and wading through mountains of snowdrift for several months past. Despite the fact of the terrible storms that raged at the Serpentine during the past winter, the mail contractor (Mr Uarinan, at Linburn), with the assistance of tome of the residents, delivered the mails to the entire Batiefaution of the resident comninnity— ou several occasions in the face of blinding snowstorms.