LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2201, 7 May 1896, Page 25

LAKE COUNTY.

May 2.— Harvesting may now be aaid to he over, all the crops but two in the district being cut, and in these cases tho lateness is due more to a mistake in judgment than to climate. Owing to the splendid yield of grain and the wc»lth of straw obtained from tho long Tartarian oat?, this variety is much favoured by farmers, and it .seams the soil and climate of the Wakatipu basin is peculiarly adapted to its growth, judges all agreeing that they seldom see the local crops equalled. This'yery naturally- makes our farmers take to this variety 'of oats kindly, but there is this drawback— it takes fully a month longer to ripen than Danish oats, for instance, and is therefore not so well adapted for tbe late portions of !' the district as the Danish, which, besides being 1 also a. good cropper, makes very.good and nourishing chaff. As the harvest may now be looked upon as at an end, a short retrospect will not be out of place. The harvest has been the latest ever known here, but it was favoured by better weather than the average, seasonable harvests starting in 'the beginning of February and finishing about the middle of March. There was a total absence of those terrible galesthat lay the crops as flat as a pancake, "und there was more than an average of sunshiny days, and Ic;bs rain Another advantage was that next year's wheat crop could be sown without interfering with the harvest, and the little fall sown wheat that whs put in all went into the ground before harvesting was begun. As a rule harveot and seed time fafl. together upon the farmer, making it.ofteu hot work for him.' Thare are a good mtny rumour* in the air about heavy yields, but it will be as well to await the verdict of the threshing mill before giving them circulation. However, it is quite safe to say that <the last 'harvest taken all round is the best the district has seen for many years.

Broken Out in a New Place.— Dr W. H. Dutton, late of Melbourne, who has created considerable stir here by hia' skill as a medico, has now j come out with a novel* of no small pretensions. 'Throughout the novel, which fills an octavo volump of upwards of 500 pages, there runs a Quaint quiet huanour Hint every now and ths»n flashes up in brilliant sallies, often when least expected. The utory is told in a bright, lively style, that wads very evenly and smoothly, introducing many striking characters and incident", wl.ile passages of great strength and force of Bontiment, dressed in befitting language, abound throughout the volume. The title of the novel is '" The Bird of Paradi»e," and as lam afraid the g^nus is pretty numerously represented, the novel will have a wide application. The story is a love story, ending in ttie divorce court, the icene of which, though laid in Americn, might be anywhere— in any of the Australian colonies, for instance— so true is it to life. Judging fiorn an advance copy I have been favoured with, I «hould think it would catch on, atad" as the sensational element has been judiciously handled, it should find favour with all olasses of readers. The novel is to be simultaneously published in Dunlin and Melbourne, and will be out in a few days. Messrs S. N. Brown and Co., of Dunedin, are the printers, and they have produced a volume that is a credit to the firm and to the colony. The letterpress and general arrangement of the text leave nothing to be desired, and the whole being done up in scarlet cloth, with gold lettering, makes a very presentable volume. The Census. — Having passed through the ordeal of enumeration,*' we have to thank the government for their, kind concern about our health and state of mind, and in ordinary courtesy must return the compliment paid us, and ask them are they quite well and sane? At' any rate the query means a great deal more to us— that is, the citizens of the colony— than our sanity can concern the Government, I believe psychologists are pretty well agreed as to who are the insane ; the doubt is who are the sane. We are told'the world is made up of rogues and fools- mostly fools. Here tbe same query crops up : "Who are the rogues and who the fools?" The distinction seems to vanish ai we rise in the social scale, 'until we reach the collation of all colonial virtues and 'wisdom about to assemble at Wellington, where they become so blended that neither can tell which is which nor who is who t But all this is beside the question. We have been counted, and the result is : , Queenstown ... 781- Increase ... *.. 2 Arrowtown ... 409— Decrease ... .., 17 These are the totals, sane and insane, fools and rogues all counted in. These figures, however, are subject to correction as to the actual population, for tbe census was taken during the Raster holidays, when, numbers of residents from both places were absent on pleasure bent, and are consequently not classed with any of the above ■ Rotten Hills.— lt would oppear there's some- ! thing rotten in the state of New Zealaud, affoct- | ing even her hills. List week there was an immense slip on the Qoeenßtown-Duncdin road at what is known as the Nevis .Bluff, completely "blocking traffic for several days^ The ro»d is now again open. L4KES Electorate.— Mr W. Fraser, M.H.R. for the Lakes, has finished his tour of the district, and in every instuncemet with a warm reception, and at parting was accordad a full complement of confidence in his past and future actions. This speaks well for his success at the end of the coming session should there be a contest, of -which there is still some talk. People often refer in print to the " Lakes electorate" as the " Wakatipu electorate," which is a mistake. There is a Wakatipu goldfield, but no Wakatipu electorate. It ia the 1 akes."