(From Our Own Correspondent.) EDINBURGH, June 30.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 92

(From Our Own Correspondent.) EDINBURGH, June 30.

THE SEASON.

Though we are now within three days of the summer solstice we have as yet had very little real summer weather. At the end oi May there were a few warm days, [ong waited for, but since then cold winds have prevailed, so that now, at midsummeT, greatcoats and furs are by no means rare objects in the streets. la spite of the lateness of the season, however, it gives pi-omise of being a good one, if heat is not too long in coming. The country never looked more beautiful, and the orchards give promise of an exceptionally good fruit eeason. The lambing season has proved a better one than was at one time anticipated, and grouse prospects are at least fair. The deer in the Highlands, however, are suffering from sickness, and a number have died. The malady is said to have been caused by the animals, which had had a long and hard; winter xwith consequent short commons, overeating " themselves when spring afc length burst upon "us and feed became suddenly abundant. There is another cloud threatening ue in the shape of a rise in the price of meat. Already meat has risen Id per 1b in Glasgow, and experts say prices will soon rise 2d per lb all over Scotland. Two principal reasons are assigned for this — namely, the great falling off in the supply from America, a consequence of the financial crisis there; and the fact that British farmers, finding milk pay them better than meat, are changing their system accordingly. It has also been affirmed that the decline in trade, with the consequences of poorer wages and an increase in the number of the unemployed, has detrimentally affected the demand for meat.