LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2375, 7 September 1899, Page 29

LAKE COUNTY.

September 2. — Here we are within three ■weeks of the summer solstice, and the frost is ■with us still. Nearly every morning quite a tangible covering of ice is found upon buckets of water left outside over night. The days, however, are beginning to get balmy, and gardening, in favoured positions, is the order of the day. Arbour Day, which is fixed for the 13th inst., provided the weather be fine, is sure to be a success, but it will be rather late. It is somewhat difficult to see why the day cannot be held in the autumn instead of in the spring. Many trees, macrocarpas and some other pines, suffer a great dea' by being transplanted after the spring growth has set in. At It Again. — Yesterday morning at about 8.30 there was a repetition of earthquake shocks. The tremors, though not so violent as previous ones, were nevertheless strong enough to make themselves felt over a wide area. What is rather remarkable is the fact that for three consecutive Fridays we have had regularly recurring shocks of more than average violence. Here is a rare opportunity for an end-of-the-■world prophet — three knockings, and the catastrophe is enough to hang a ready-made prophecy upon. A' Wrinkle. — Some time ago the Australasian published a new cure, accidentally discovered by a woman, for the grub pest upon trees. It •was stated that a woman in Colorado blew a horn, under a tree, when, lo and behold! the grubs, with which the tree was badly infested, iell thickly and quickly round her. The longer and louder she^blew the quicker and thicker the grubs fell. Drums, brass bands, and hurdy-gurdies played under infested trees had the same effect. The grubs came down in an ecstacy too ravishing to allow them to think of escaping, but they permitted themselves to be swept into heaps, and burned upon large fires lit for the purpose. The tune that appeared to have the greatest effect was "Yankee Doodle," the grubs just tumbling in perfect showers as soon as they heard it. It will depend upon a trial to see whether oi not the \ codlin moth will tumble to it. Wakatipu Licensing Committee. — The last sitting of this body was remarkable for the number of transfers of licenses made, which indicates, of course, a corresponding number of changes in the publicans' and sinners' business. Signs of the Times. — That we are not left out in the ,cold by the good things going in other parts of Otago is shown by the fact that the Lake Wakatipu Steam Ship Company see themselves compelled by the increase of business to extend their wharf at Frankton, which •is the landing place for machinery and goods coming by way of Kingston for Kawarau and even some of the Molyneux dredges.