SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2299, 24 March 1898, Page 34

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

(From Gtjk Own Cobkespondent. ) Invercaegill, March 22. The barometer has riseu from very low to [ high during the last 24- hours, and the weather iis improving. It is atili cold, with passing | slorray-lookirg clouds, but no rain has fall-n | sinea the morning. There is a considerable j quantity of grain cut, but it is believed there is listle possibility of it spronting. The weather, though very unwelcome at this juncture, has done much good to th« turnip crop, I Fully 1500 people have left the Southland J diatricfc during the iaat three days for Dunedin, , and aaothec big train has just been despatched at 11.30 p.m., which is due in Dunedin tomorrow (Wednesday) morn»Dg at 7.50. The Police Commission arrive here on Monday afternoon, and held their first sitting iv Invercargili ths following day. It is common rumour here during the last few days that an Invercargili solicitor has left this lccalily, probably to return no more. I Mr li. Carrick, widely known in journalistic circles, leaves iv a fp w days for Sydoey ; to col- ! lacs historical mater prior to the forties conj earning New Zealand for the Invercargill i branch of the New Zealand Natives' Association. To-morrow (Wednesday) will pretty generally be observed here as a close holiday. All the wholesale houses, banks, insurance companies, butcher, &c, have notififd their intention of doing so, the drapers only keeping open in the raorrjiug and observing the compulsory Wednesday half-holiday. Prospectuses are just issued of a company for acquiring the businesses of W. T. Murray and Co., manufacturers of Pasteurised condensed wid preserved milk at Wallacetown, Invercargill, aud Auckland. A severe galo raged yesterday. The roof of the Tra-nway Company's stables was lifl»d bodily eft' and deposited on the opposite side cf , the street.

— Portsmouth, according to tradition, waß iv existence long before the time of the Roman Conquest, and tho area of the harbour is pracicdlly the same to-d&y »s that des'gned by the Romans. Tbe French have captured the place more than once, and it has had one of the most inWesbins: careers of any of our dockyards.