PUERUA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2200, 30 April 1896, Page 25

PUERUA.

April 24. -We' are- having some fine, mild' weather at prenent, with' an occasional frost at night. IHE Crops. Harvest operations' are now well forward. All tbte 1 orops, except a stoob 1 or twoj have- bren got in, and threshing has been commenced, and' will soon' be' in full swing. I hear good accounts of the oat craits, aud the returns will probably be up- to the average, or perhaps a little over. Turnips for suuie r«-a«an or othet do not »(,em this year to Be quite-a? good 'a crop a& uvu&l the 1 absence thi* aea-on'of late spring or early autumn frostn, potatoes should be a good 1 crop. Pasture grans h>-s bean tolbrebly abundant this season, but with the approach of winter and the depredation^ of r»bbvts< feed is getting scarcer. Bunny is in evidence much its uxual. Some of tbe faruiors- are already laying poUoued oats) and the rabbits seem to be taking it freely.

Roads - The contractor hau jmt fini»hed putting 1 on a' strip of metal' near the church but tlwspecifications seem to have made it tou narrow. When a few more chaiiix of m^-tal have been laid under tbe ««m« contract it will still leave m fewchains of this road badly off foi want of metal, 1 involving deep mud hole* in winter time ; but I supp. se we shall huve to wait some time- before I the road is made altogether traffickahln. It nueras I a< miserable state of affairs that county councils ' in i«ut!yi»ig di-tricta should be- bo ill'provided* with funds for making roads tit for traffic. If Government' and parliamentary exixsrmeK could be reduced in our comparatively speaking small comniuuity there migat be, more money available for the very impurtkut and' essential work of 'mad* construction. An Old Colonist. — Such Otago old identities as are utill surviving' will well recollect Mt James Goodall, who kept a bakvry, store, and ace minodation house at Tokornairiro in the early days Mr Gooda'l, who is now nearly 90 years of age, 'is at present living with his wife, who- is- afflioted' with paralysw of : the lower part of her body,, in tbe home of his stepson, Mr Hugh M'Kechnie, at' Mr Graham Dawson's sawmill here. One day lately, wHen taking one of his constitutional rambles, Mr Goodall got lost in the bu«b, and hud to pass the night outside, not ti-ing found till the uext morn- | ing. Fortunately it was * mild' night, and Mr Goodtill doe not seem much the worse for his adventure, being still bale and heurty j Harvest Home —We are to have a " harvest homo " at the PueruaHall here on the Ist of M»y. next, the proceeds to. be given to the Brunner Relief Fund; ,