SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 2761, 13 February 1907, Page 52

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES

(Fbou On* Own Cosbisspobfdzst.) INVEECABGILL, February 9. The local oat market is very strong, but aa the quantity offering irom the country & practically nil merchants- «c relying on the very small stocks they now hold, in the Bluff stores. The best price obtainable is 2a 5Jd, Lo.b., s.L, for B grade, which isequivalent to 2b ljd, on trucks, at country stations,, There is not likely to be much doing as far as SoutUwuT is concerned until the new crop is available, which will probably be wittim * fortnight or -three weeks. This is considerably ewliej than last year. •nd lie sample is immensely better — equal un fact to -that of the year previous. There is m large quantity at present in stock, and the re« ia ripening rapidly, and biudore should be exceedingly busy during the next week or two. There are some splendid crops of oats in Southland, and though the rtraw is not very long the grain is well headed, plump, and fulL It ia difficult yet to say how the total yield will compare with that of last year, but it appeals as if the shortage will be much less than was anticipated some time ago. It is. difficult to say how prices will open, but as stocks are everywhere very small it is not likely that they will go very low. Some of those competent to form an idea venture the opinion that Is 9d to 2s. an tracks, at country stations, will be about the opening range of values. Chaff is extremely scarce, notwithstanding that several lots of the new crop have already been offered. Prices for old chaff rule as bign as £4 sb, on trucks, at country stations, and there is not any more offering than is buuLcient to keep the local market supplied. The general opinion is that chaff is going to rule very high this year, owing to so- much of the straw in the new crop being short. There is » good inquiry from the north, but very "little is going there, as until the rush of the new crop sets in there is practicaUy none to epvre outside- local requirements. Wheat is exceedingly firm, especiaUy for feed, which is now selling at 3s Id, on trucks, at country stations, and the quantity offering is v«ry sma-lL Eyeguies can be said to be booming. pnc«s Tufing from 3s Wd to 4s 3d for perennial. Th« samples offering so far have been very heavy, and very clean, weights runxtißg from 271b to 28ilb to the bushel. There ia a very keen demand, aDd merchants have buyers out' ia all P»rts of Southland/ One farmer with. 800 bags eokl his stock, and his cheque came to slightly over £1000 Italian is aiso firm in price, 3s 68 to 3b 9d being the present quotations. There is very little ojd •eed now held in store, and there is no doubt that -those who require to ' fow down later in the year will have to pay a very high pr»ce for their requirements. The potato crop is looking very well indeed. There is a very wide area planted this year, tLnd as the bugbt has not amounted to much the Southland, crop .s expected to be a record cne. During the week =to<k sa'.es have been held at Wallaeetown. Wxiiton. and Otautau, and at each place there was a good yarding of all classes of stock. A large number of northern sheep were down, the bulk of them being lambs, which sold from ~s to 81?8 1 ? 6c! They were nice lambs, but most of them wril not be got off as " fals " this ye*r Lambs fit for rape are m keenest demand, *nd quotations for these rule at from 10s to 11» fid SeAreral nice lines of local people's lambs lold ait from 11s 6d to 12s 3d These Will probably f*tt«n in about a month to MX weeks. There is a- very keen demand tor fat lambs, for which, buyers are scouring ihi country, v«lu«8 ruling from 14s to 14s W- Fat wethers are afeo in good request at from 17s to 18a 6d. Toung ewes, two-tooths, era readily sold from. 12s «d to 146, and four-tooths «t from lte io 15a. Good forwawl wethers are making from 13s to 14s 6d, and for these tk«se is a Tery mttoag demand There is a strong demand for good b*ef, which can b« quoted at 24s per lOOib. Forward conditioned cattle are not so saleable owing to the- dry weather. Some farmers with tlwse on hand «re now driving (hem coLsicL«rab!« di=tajic*s ■*_£> -orai^TTaken all round the turnip crop looks exceedingly heahln, and it" -we could onJy get T? U l S ' ste * d - v riill soutu and winter feed wouid be assured Xorthtra v.aitors during

■the week have heen strongly impressed by the difference between the country in the western District and what they have been seeing round Oamaru and Timara. Southland feed is fairly good all over, though in some places the want of Tain has been telling severe'y on the grass. The ?.arly harvest, which will allow farmers to make use of their stubble, will he.p to keep the stock going till the turnips are further advanced.

February 11

The Southland livers contmut to be very low, and except from the Waiau there are no good baskets to record. This river continues to give good sport, the fish cow rimrung much heavier than in the early part of the season. Within the last month some dozens of fish of lO'.bs and upwards have been taken. One caught by Mr Lowry, of the railway department, weighing ovei 141bs, was a remarkably fine fish — one of the deepest yet taken from that river. The smaller streams are extremely low. A party of three Invercargill anglers who visited the Mimihau on Wednesday found it full of green weed, which greatly interfered with angling operations. Two stitck to the fly all day without getting a single fish. The third used small red garden worms, and got 10 takeable fish, not one of which, however, would 1 weigh even as much as three-quarters of a psund. Night fishers have recently been taking » few, laxge fish from the Waihopai. from the Gladstone Bridge up towards Thomson's Bush, a 7-pounder and an 8-pounder being among the last week's captures. On Monday last the Besses o' th' Barn Band went to Winton by special train, and had » very good house. In the evening they played at Gore, where their takings are said, to have been greater than at any one concert in InvercargiH.

The Winton Trotting Club held its third annual meeting on Wednesday last, when a programme of eight races was got through without mishap. At the ordinary meeting of the Southland Cfiaritable Aid Board, held on Thursday, a. cheque for £1000 was received from the Goto Hospital committee, and it was decided to purchase a site df seven ajid a-half acres for the hospital, and the architect was instructed to piepare plans and specifications.

Mr W. B Scandrett, who is again a candidate for the office of Mayor of Invercargill, is not going to have a- walk-over, Mr John Stead, a councillor and a former mayor, beinjr also announced as a candidate.

At the general meeting 1 of the Invercargill Starr-Bowkett Society on Tuesday night, cluster 177 in group 1 drew the free loan appropriation. The site for the Fallen Troopers' Memorial for Invercargill is yet a matter of doubt. At a meeting held last week Mr Joseph Hatch, a member of the Executive, gave notice of motion that the proposed site at the intersection of Tay, Dee, and Clyde streets was not a suitable position for this memorial. In connection with tKe Hedgehope sports on Wednesday last a cycle road race from Invercargill to Hedgehope was advertised. The contestants were notified beforehand that the police would not allow scorching, and some of those who persisted, notwithstanding the notice, and the efforts of a. mounted constable, .will probably be prosecuted. At the Magistrata's Court in Tnvercargill last week, W. F. Inder, of Gfore. N. Beer, and W. Bronrby, of Biverton', were fined each £2 and costs for drawing a net for trout in the Jacob'B River between the wooden bridge and the new railway bridge. The sound of tha reaper is becoming general in Southland. Quite a number of paddocks of oats have already been cut, aad one or two are already in the stack. Detective M'llveney leaves for Wellington on "Wednesday. It was intended that he should have bad a. public presentation from the citizens of Inv^rcargill and another from the local members of the force, but the rules of the department preventing this, the difficulty will probably be got over by forwarding these gifts to Mr M'Uveney's mother, who hves m Kumara. The Oarrieon Band held a- promenade concert in the Squ»ie on Thursday evening, when a collection was taken up to help p*y the baud's expenses to the competition at Christ church. Members of the two local bauds have been making a vigorous canvass in aid of the funds, and have been pretty successful, one man getting over £20. Mr .7 F. White, manager of the Bank of X Z at Wmton, was entertained at a, farewell social m Moore's Hall on Wedrwwiay evening. when a. number of eulogistic speeches were made, and Mr White was presented with a purse of sovereigns in token of the high esteem in which he is held in and about i" Understand that Mr T. O. M'Gill, storekeeper, of Waimatuku, is giviag up business to "o 'farming on a piece of land, part ol the°Blackwater Estate, which he has recently acquired. . The annual meeting of the Dairy Association was held at Bluff on Tuesday last, when about 40 factory managers and director* ware present. The morning was devoted to the grading of a shipment of 2600 eases of cheete by Mr Cuddy, dairy commissioner, and Air Sairers, Government grader. A number of dairy managers tried their 'prentice hands at grading, their conclusions being pretty close to those arrived »t by the expert. At the meeting held in Sutherland s Hall m the afternoon an address was given by Mr Cuddy, who insisted on a still further improvement in cheese flrvour, which, he ad mitted, was, after all. when the managers had done their best, due to the condition of the milk Most of the farmers w^re do:ng everything in their power to secure a satisfactory supply, but some of them, he w»« afraid" were not, and the department wou.d have before long to take measures to see that they did their duty in this resp«(t Clean hauds, clean utensils, and clean conditions generaJly were absolutely necessary, and the milk must be kept cool, and the beat way of doing this was by keeping the cans containing the milk over night in cool water. Befoie the meeting closed, Mx Sawers, manager of the Edendale factory, was presented with a handsome silver trophy, valued at 60 guineas, won by him m the cheese com petition at last winter show The presentation »*<! made by Mr R. A Anderson, president of the Southlsud A. and P. AssociationIn acknowletig.iig the presentation. Mr Sawers intimatr-d that he was " playing for keeps and ibrft managers wouid nave to huttle to obtain a temporary loan of the flagon.

BOWLIXG TOURNAMENT!

A mc-etii'g of the Easter tournament cornnut tee took place in the pavilion of tlie Southland Bowling Club last Wednesday The principal business was tho arranging of the piogramnie. It was hoped that the Pairs match would be conducted as at the last tournament 'Christmas 1905), on the twolife system, but at Easter the dayß are short, and a careful inveetipation of the matter by the hon. a«cr«t*ry (Mr James Haon) proved th»fc it would be impoasibte to follow U1.3 plan that he-introducil with so much acceptance at the l*at gathering. Upon this being demonstrated to the satisfaction of the c«nitßltiw it wsts a^cda«a io k»^ tke t-orn-»»-ment mainly a rink event. The competing rinks are— *a far •* possible— to be divid«d into sections of eight, and aa «acfa is to pl*y th« other, there will be seven games in con-

KeLcion with this, event for every team entered. Four games will be played on Good Friday and three on Saturday (all sixteen heads), and on the conclusion of these seven games the Pairs match will be commenced. Of course it will happen in some of the sections that some of the rinks will tie for first place, and this may put off the commencement of the Doubles till Easter Monday On Monday the sectional winners will play off against each other for the various prizes. It will be seen by this that those rinks that win their sections will be debarred from competing in the Pairs ni-a<-cb, but as they will be kept busy fighting the finals during the whole of Easter Mondcy there will be no hardship felt over that Each rink winning its section will be entitled to -a trophy to the value of £i (£1 per player), and the players of any such rink who should wish to give up their chance of first prize — preferring to have a try at the Pairs — will be at perfect liberty to retire. All entries for the Rink match must be in- the hands of the secretary by Friday, 22nd Mp.rch, so that the sections can be arranged, ard the whole order of play mapped out. As at last tournament, it is proposed to give each skip a card, which ■will show him at a glance whom he has to meet and where he has to play. Refreshments -will be provided by the committee, so that there will be no necessity for any players to leave the ground for lunch — indeed, there would be no time to do so. Of course, the number of entries may require that one of the sections shall consist of more— or perhaps less — than eight rinks, but the committee wiU endeavour to meet any such case as equitably as. possible. Shonld there be so many entries that all three greens will be used, players will have to " move on." After the first two games on Friday morning players will go to another green, and on Saturday to yet another, so that as far as the playing surface is concerned all will be on the same footing. As Easter falls early this year, it is expected that there will be a record entry.