SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 43

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

CFaoM Oun Own Correspondent.) INVERCARGILL, April 1. The very long spell of bioken weather seems ♦o have come to an end at last. Nearly the "Whole of last week we were favoured with lovely autumn weather, and though this morning the sky was overcast, it has cleared again, and has every appearance at present of keeping fine. A tremendous amount of crop has been taken into stack during the past week, but much of it putj in in the eaily part of the week must have had hardly sufficient drymg to make it in really good condition. No doubt the broken and unsettled state of the weather with the low prices at present offering have made many of the growers impatient to get it into stack, and rather indifferent as to what condition it is in when stacked. Threshing has commenced in earnest in many distucts, and a.lxeady the Southland section of the railways has carried 45,383 sacks; last week alone there were 17,361 sacks carried. The grain market at the present moment has a tendency to come still easier than it has been during the past month. It is now almost impossible to get more for old oats than for this season's, and Is 2d to Is 2£d at country sidings is the best price obtainable. Ihe only demand comes from Sydney, but there is really nothing doing in the export trade at present. _ One giain merchant miorms me that he has already made arrangements for freight for shipping oats to the Home market, as he sees no other outlet at a satisfactory price for the large surplus of oats that are m the country this year. The same gentleman considers the Government's estimate, from the statistics collected, of 15,000,000 bushels of oats grown this year as very much below the true state of the oat crop. Twenty million bushels, he says, will not be far out. The meat market is quite lifeless at present, and no sales »t© being reported. The Southland wheat this year will, I am afraid, be a little dark in colour; but in most districts should be clear of frost. There are several inquiries from the noith for ryegrass now ; but the prices remain very low still. Farmers' samples &-c quoted at Is 3d to Is 6d, at which prices Ales have been made. Dressed samples are inquired for at 2s Id f.0.b., but sellers ara not willing to quit at that price. Salee during the week have been well stocked xrith all classes of sheep and cattle, but the attendances have seemed to consist chiefly of sellers. Buyers are waiting until the stubbles are clear, and are la little disturbed- in their minds at present as to what turn the market •will really take. Freezing companies are not in the market yet, and one manager here is of opinion that the prices ruling for prime mutton and lamb will both go back farther, and therefore is inclined to wait. Some of the dealers say that with, the abundance of feed everywhere the growers must stock up, and therefore the prices mu3t improve. At present I think it very hazardous speculating what the shesp market will be two months hence. The cattle market still remains good ; but the high values lately placed on horses will have to be lowered somewhat in the future for sales to be made. The horse markets throughout Southland have lately turned out more unsold horse 3 than sold ones. The following were the wholesale prices for farm produce on Saturday in Invercargill : — Butter : Fresh 7a, factory (bulk) lOd, pats lOJd. Eggs, Is per doz. Cheese: Farm 3Jd. Bacon: Farm 7d, rolled (farm) 6<3, haras Bd. Potatoes, £i per ton. Fowl wheat, 2s. Barley, 2s lo 2s 6d. Chaff, £2 10s. Flour, £6 10s to £7 ss. Oatmeal, £9 10s to £10. Bran, £B 10s (including bags). Pollard, £4. Durrng the month just closed the Customs duties collected at Invercargill amounted to £7168 Os lOd, or £1011 19s lOd more than m March, 1900. The beer duty collected totalled £172 12s 6d, or 133 9d more than in the sama month of last year. At a meeting of citizens held on Friday evening it was decided to form a Ratepayers' Association in Invercargill. The objects of the psEociation are: (1) To watch legislation affecting local bodies, supporting same if in the interests of the people, and promoting legislation if necescary ; (2) to see that such laws passed in the interests of ratepayers are properly administered; (3) to watch the actions of representatives in the council and act accordingly ; and (4) to promote m every possible way the interests of ratepayers generally. The following gentlemen were appointed a provisional committee — Messrs E. £$. Pilcher, Jas. Manson, Jno. W. Mitchell, R. A. Anderson, J. Kingsland, John Thomson, W. N. Stirling, B. Gilmour, P. Gilkison, and Jno. Wesney. Mr H. Bastings announces himself a candidate for the mayoralty in addition to the two other candidates I mentioned last week. The action of Mr Bastings is not looked upon in a favourable light by a large majority of the councillors, who seem to think that the mayoral chair is a kind of reward reserved for councillors who have done their duty to the city as councillors, quite irrespective of their fitness to occupy such an important rjosition. At ihe recent sitting of the New Zealand TJniversity Senate at Auckland. Mr W. A. Stout, of tbis town, was appointed examiner in the law of evidence for the LL.B. degree and for the barristers' and solicitors' professional examination?. Mr Stout was previously, for some years, examiner in the law of property for the same txaminations. A very big fire is reDorted to have taken place in Riverton on Saturday night, totally destroying Messrs Robertson's, Moore' 3, Lyle's, Anderson's, and two otheT properties in Palmerston street. The Bank of New Zealand was only saved by the constant application of wet blankets. The native families who always go away to the mutton bird islands left Riverton last week in the Cavalier. An exceptionally good seaeon is expected this year Saturday's Southern Cross says — Is the site of the new gaol to be immediately north of the hospital? Under instructions from headquarters borings were made this week on the ground in question with the view of determining its suitability from a building point of view, and no doubt we shall soon hear more of the matter. It is understood that the boring revealed the existence of au extensive and valuable bed of gravel. ( It is- understood that the owner of one of the buildings in Liddel street required for the erection of railway workshops has received notice to leave in three months. A wooden hui'ding is being erected south of the railway station for the accommodation of the district traffic manager and the resident engineer and staff so ** to allow of more space being devoted in the old building to the goods department. . Trtf Southland Times says that in regard to the vacancy in the Conciliation Board by the retirement of Mr J. A. Millar, M.H.R.. Mr J. A. Hana-n, member for Invercargill, wired the Premier pointing out that Invercargill was not represented upon the board. Mr Hanan thought that Invercargill's position should receive some consideration when Mr Millar's successor was being appointed, and consequently communicated with the Piemier on the subject, from whom he received the following j-epfv — "The unions have to elect a successor to Mr Millar. The Southland unions should spp to the matter and make representations to other unions and Icciiities renresented." At a ranting of the Southland Education Board, he'd o" Friday, to consider the Minister i.'or Educauoa'6 reply t-o the board's pro-

posals concerning the distribution of the grant for increasing the salaries of the board's teachers, the following resolution, on the motion of Mt W. Macahster, was cavned —"That while not rgreeing with the Mnnster's pioposals in omitting the male assistants from the proposed list of increases and in increasing the salaries of female pupil teachers, yet, in order that the teachers as a whole msy receive the benefits of an increase of salary, the Minister's modification of the board's proposals as set forth in his telegrarh of 20th mst. be accepted, and that the Minister be asked to forward the amount due to this distnct." At the Land Board's meeting last Thursday the right was granted, subject to applicant working the caves, to Farquhar M'Kcnzie to remove guano from ths caves in Chalky and Preservation Inlets for £2 10s per annum. At the ordinary monthly meeting of the Bluff Harbour Board a request from the Austro-Hun-garian consul at AwCkland for an annual report, by-laws, and plan of the harbour was referred to the M?rme depaitment to see if they had any objection to the request being granted, the chairman remarking that it was a question whether such information of all the ms and outs of the harbour should be supplied off-hani to outside countries. The general manager of railways wrote stating that the department could not alter the charges for con-veya-nce of wool from Waipahi and other stations on the Tapanui branch. At present the rates give the Otago port a lower freight of 5d per bale. The matter was referred to the Finance Committee, arid the board do not intend to let the matter stand as it is if they can get it altered. The wharfage collected during the four weeks endpd March 2 amounted to JEICS4 16s 7d. The ordinary reverue for February was £1519 Os 4d, as compared with £1187 15s for the same month la-st year, being an increase i of £332 5s 4d. At the local Police Couit on Wednesday morning a young man was charged with having committed no less than ten different thefts between February 1 and March 21 of this yesr. He pleaded guilty to each charge, and was sentenced to a year's imprisonment on each of two charges — the sentences to be cumulative, and on the other charges one month's imprisonment each — these seutence3 to run concurrently with the other sentences. "What a fortunate outlay!" This was theejaculation of one or two fellow-travellers by the train from Orepuki this morning. Knowing them, I said, "What' somebody drawn a bweep?" T . Tr hen one of them told me of a poor fellow, who on the alarm of fire at Orepuki eight or ten weeks ago ran out m the darkness, fell over the tram line, and broke his kneecap. The next day he was taken to the Riverton Hospital. He has recently been removed to his home. On arriving there he fotind a letter from the Invercargill agent of an accident insurance company, reminding him he wps insured against accidents, and enclosing a form of claim to get filled up by a doctor. The man had been suffering so much pain that he had forgotten he had 'an accident policy. However, the result of the reminder, my friend tells me, was a, cheque last week for £80. The cost of the policy was only three or four pounds a year.