SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES (From Our Own Correspondent.) INVERCARGILL, July 22.

Otago Witness, Issue 2471, 24 July 1901, Page 49

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES (From Our Own Correspondent.) INVERCARGILL, July 22.

The weather since my last has improved, somewhat, and though the cold has been very so% ere, the snow has gradually disappeared, and it i^> only m very much shaded places that a:iy traces of the late snowfall remain. "Up countiy the thaw has not been great, and it is si ill lying thickly enough to make things cry unpleasant fo. stock. The weather foi the past few days, though occasionally veiy Lard fiostb iv the morning, has not hindered furiners in bieaking up their paddocks foi seed, and r.c doubt th. present price for oats has tempted then 1 , to break up additional giotiiid this winter foi the production af tha* cereal.

I fancy that there is going to be an uni7-n-ally heavy cropping this coming season. \ c feed is beginning o suffer now very considerably, and fresh breaks of turnips do not seen to remain fres'i anj length of time.

Th( oat market has had another bnsir wee!:, and a furthei rise 0,. at least a penny can b* repoited. Within s radius oi 12 miles of town Is 7d can bi got foi prime samples. Merchants seem keen to buy, and though iot sure of the market continuing to improve. I am sure now that it will not go back. Th' exports this year have been very much heaviet than they were at idiis time last year— oru local merchant estimates that over two-thirds ol cur production have been already ihippedi away. And when one remembers thai for some time past now oats have been leaving our port ,t the rate of » quarter oi r million bushels pe. week, that statement is not to be wondered at. As an experiment, he which left Bluff last week, took away 5000 sacks for the Home market. The result of the shipment will be looked forwaid to with interest. The wheat market remains unaltered and though both ,he baker and miller have put up theii prices, the farmer has to be contented with tfr 2s 4|d per bushel that wac offering at almost the beginning of the season

Ryegrass is also unaltered, and no change will te likely to take place xmtil the spring. Complaints regarding the impossibility to obtain trucks are still far from uncommon, and the new trucks are badly neede* I notice the two local tenderers are kept busy -night and day getting their work well in fc«n4 The finished truck as turned out by jthem looks a very serviceable and stj»g Wiiole. t I heat the Riverton people are endeavouring lo get their band formed into a garrison band. |t After almost months without anything in the •way of » decent perfonn»nce ait our theatre, •Mr Barrie Marschel gave the public a good vaxietj entertainment on Wednesday last, and •I understand it is hia intention to produce a good wholesome evening's entertainment every Wednesday evening at a popular price. If so, a long-feltr wan.t will be provided for. The Pollards, too, I understand, open here on the 23th inst. The Birch wood Hunt Club's P«int-to-pomt Steeplechase was ran at Wairio on Saturday. The 13st class was won by Mr D. Macpharson's Golden Legacy (owner), and the list class by Mr T. Finn's Johnny (P. Finn). The going ■was very heavy, and the fences big, all containing a fair amount of arire. The last fence— a plain barb wire— was the cause of all but two or three of the large field coming to grief. Speaking to a leading traveller in Otago md Southland the other day, he told me that business was good, and he thought people were already recovering from the dredging boom. There was p.enty of money knocking about, and small busme&s men seemed to be in a better position than he ever remembered them in Each of the country teams that sent « aian o~ more away in either the fourth or fifth contingents has been busy during the past week in jiving their returned heroes fitting •welcomes. Some of the remarks of the men in returning thanks are, to say tne least to them, original. One man, speaking at Orepuki, said that he wca'd rather eat fern root all the days of his life *'aan go back to South Africa. At another rcce. '•ion one returned contmgenter, in reply to a question concerning loot, said there •were lots of it to be had, and on one occasion lie and a mate crept out of camj during darkness and walked six miles to a church, where they had heard there was plenty of. money to le- looied. "When they got. there, they found only 34 "tickies," oi threepenny pieces, which they shared. These, he remarked, his comrades won from him next momirg at nap. The verdict of the jurj- in the inquest touching the death of Mrs Sneyd, who met her death through the bursting of a rocket in Invercargfll the night the contingents returned, was a fcregone .•onclusion. The charge of manBlaugher against Captain MGiilvary will be taken in the lower court next Thursday. There are various rumours going the rounds of the town concerning the injured persons proceeding for damages, but so far nothing definite can be gathered. The man Sneyd. who was injured, is- very badly maimed, and will never be his former self again. The injured seem to be all doing well — many of them about again.