DEEP STREAM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2842, 2 September 1908, Page 89

DEEP STREAM.

August 20.—The snow which fell in July is leaving the Lammerlaw and Rock and Pillar Ranges very slowly. There has been very little thaw inded, and the snow has only shrunk and hardened. In the lower country it. has ail but disappeared, and there haver been some very hard froste during the last fortnight, but the days have been bright, sunny, and warm. It is not likely that there will be any great loss of sheep on these ranges, but cattle are in a gad p'hght, and numbers are known to be lost. There has been a st-eady thaw this week, and continuous frosts ehould now cease. If a quick thaw should come, tho Taieri Plain will, without doubt, be .again, turned into an inland lake, and settlers should 1 be on the look-out. The Telephone.—The t&lephone is now available to the public at OkTks, six miles from here and will, and is, proving of great service. A few tinkles, a short wait, i and a gentle, though hurried, and yet very patient, voice at the other end puts us in communication in the twinkling of [an eye with the" wide, wide world we j read about in our weekly Witness, but live Iso far off. The instrument at Clarks is one of the very latest, and there is every con\enience ther-e for despatching messages, and a very neat and tidy office hae been arranged, where privacy is ensured. The General Election.—The Taieri is certainly destined to be the belle of the ball at the coining elections. Thea-e are only six candidates at present. A professional politician, two of the devil's own, an exmayor, a county councillor, and a clajmon ner. end as there is still plenty of time before nomination day, we may yet be wood by a tinker, a tailor, and a cowboy. Anyhow, there is only room for one of them at Bellamy's, and again a lawyer may be the lucky one to paes the winning post, and if the theory of t'io survival of the fitter applies to politic - and politicians, as it is said to do to ni:.i and mere mortals,' this may well turn o-u io be the oase. Mr Tom Mackenzie is .he first in the field to tell us wliat he has already done for others, and what he will do for us if w© only give him the chance. He seems, by all accounts, to have had a very good reception in the districts he has visited. and the 'Other candidates, or a, few of them, may be trusted to let us know their respective vie-ws very shortly. The suspent^e is terrible when it i-s remembered that what, men mostly irant to kn6w is how this new million and a-quartor loan is J^oing to be shared out. and when, and if not, why not, and whether our ale is to be stopped next June (which Heaven, forfeiid) or only curtailed.