SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 52

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES

- j (From Our Owk Correspondent.) . j INVEROARG-ILL, January 9. 3 The only business passing in the loca cat maiket is in small Jots to the Nortr • J Island on the basis of Is B£d to Is 3d ~ f.0.b.,5.i Farmers who have been hold s ing on storage are mostly shipping on the s , chance of getting better returiis from lion 2 j don than tho> can obtain locally, the bes< •jriee obtainable here at present being I; 1 4jd to Is 5d on trucks at country stations l Zvlerehants do not expect that any business of any importance will be donr* vii the nsw crop is available, which, \vit J i a line \veather, should be fully as early as 1 lift jobs'. The middle or end of March ' should see a fair quantity offering. The 2 crops are looking exceedingly well, the - only drawback being- that a lot are so • , heavj that there is a big likelihood of theii going 1 down. r j The chaff market is very quiet. £2 5s to j i £2 10s being the best price offering for | prime quality, but outside of local iequi/ements there is nothing doing. ' Very little business is passing in the 1 stock market, and there is not much pros--1 pect of improved business till next month. I Buyers for fat lambs have been scouring ; I the country, hut so far very few have been > I got. * A good deal of business is being j done in store lambs, and prices rule at j from 11s 6d to 12s. The freezing works '. are taking in all that are available, but ' they do not expect Any quantity to bo ' coming forward till about the end of ibis 1 j month. Two-tooths are quoted — Ewes at > I 15s and wethers at 11s to lls 6d. Butchers' i j sheep have been easier of sale, and ■ I values rule at from 14s to 15s. Beef is . quoted here on the basis of 20s to 21s per . 1001 b, and a fair number of cattle have , been going to the Burnside and Addington markets. Forward-conditioned cattle, especially if well grown, are inquired for, and several Taieri buyers have been operating during the week, prices ruling from '! £5 10s to £7 10s. Younger cattle are ' i also in request, but the difficulty is to ; get decent-sized lines of suitable weights. ; Feed is very plentiful aJI over Southland, > and the green crops are looking remarkably j well. Especially can this be said of rape s and early turnips. '. Shearing has been practioally stopped during the past week in consequence of bad ' weather. There are still a large number • of sheep to be shorn in Southland, and ' the next wool sale, which takes place on January 20, should see a record catalogue so far as number of bales goea. A goad deal of private buying is being done at from 7d to 8d for ewe wool, and from 9d to lOd for hogget wool. The latest London advices are anything but consoling to manufacturers of fibre, and it looks as if the London market is quite demoralised so far as Manila and New Zealand hemp are concerned. The cablegrams received locally indicate that the price of good fair fibre has dropped 30s per ton, and nominal quotations toAiay are equal to £21 10s per ton f.o.b. for good fair, and £19 per ton for fair. As far as I can gather there are only two mills in Southland at present producing fibre, and one of these lias been fortunate enough to sell forward at prices considerably in excess of present quotations. The other mill is manufacturing and storing in hopes of better times c«ming. London stocks of New Zealand hemp at the middle of November amounted to 349 tons, but the overproduction of Manila has quite swamped the colonial ai-tiele. A New Zealand merchant, writing from London early in November about Manila hemp, cays : — " The receipts averaged 24,000 bales per week for the previous five weeks, and it is antioiI pabed that the production for this year will reach over 1,000,000 bales, which will be only 50,000 bales more than last year, and it must not be overlooked that prices show a reduction of £7 per ton from last year. It is further a recognised fact that this year's consumption will be largely incraa&ed. Manila hemp is to-day the cheapest fibre in the market. London advices are anything but optimistic regarding the fibre market, and "millers aie warned tihat pricaa will probably drop still fuithcr within the next month or two." There has been no inquny tor tow owing to the fact that no htock-s have baan available for some time na«t. January 11. The weather during the pait week has been very broken throughout Southland, westerly gales and rain squalls prevailing e\ery day. 'lhe Invercargill newspapers ars showing their faith in tiie future of Southland by a ]<i.rge expenditure of moneys to supply eight-page papers daily. The Southland Times Proprietary ha-vo just finished a most commodious building between the Police Station and Meesrs Nichol Bros., Esk street, and have installed therein an up-to-date lotary press, the latest success ; in driving power, and their fii-ot eight-page paper appeared on Saturday. The paper is 'wall filled with varied news, and notwith- i standing slight defects in the printing j which appear in the earlier issues of papers | from rotary machines till the steieotyping work is perfected presents a very good appearance. The News Company hav-e al«o ei-acted a fine machine room and ii =tallcd a rotary press to print an eight pago paper. Everything is ready for a start, and it is porbable that the enlarged Nawt, will appear thia (Mouday) afternoon. | The Southland Racing Club's summer nwcting. held on Saturday, 2ud, and Monday, 4th, was a ffroat succ-ve from every point of view. Tho w father wai fairly good on the finst da\ and splendid en tho second; the attendance was a record. The revenue was a!*o a record, and the racing was most interesting, though there wero very few close finishes. Says the Gore Standard : —The traffic on the Waikaka railway is of such extent as [ to warrant th-e belief that the lino will i turn out to be one of the best-paving bra,nch--*= in tbo dominion. The total amount of goods cariied to and from the stations ife most but go far tlie returns for the terminus at "Waikaka township and from Maitland arc the bwt. Tha number of pa c seii^ers travelling by the railway is considerably- above what was smtioipsabed. TJiL, supplies a complete refutation of fch-p statements of ?onie newspapeis that the lins would hot pay for axle gr?a=e. \lr John Molvln, whose arrival in the district date? from 1863. died here last v. eak at the v.se of 73. Mr Melvin v>a« one of the earliest sawmill^ra in th» di-i:riet. A fisherman named George Thomas was found diowne'l at Bluff on Sunday morniig iesfc. Tlie evid-ence at the inquest

„ showed that deceased had been under the J") intiuecce of diink on the Saturday night. Mr Wm. Russell, who has been town clerk of Winton for many years past, died at his home (Winton) last week after only a chert illn-ess. ( j Mr Wm. Peters, wh< has been in the employment of Mr R. Meredith, grocer, I Tay street, for the past 19 years, has |^ entered into partnership in the etor-ekeep--0 ing business at Mataura with Mr J. Gait. ( " Rofore leaving Mr Meredith's service Mr 1 , t Peters was presented by the principal with 3 a cheque for a good round sum, and by . the staff with a dressing-ease. '_ During the past weak a good deal of U uneasiness has been occasioned by the abij sence of Mr E. H. Brown, son of Mr s C. W. Brown, Avenal. from his home. j. He loft his home on Thursday evening" 9 last, ar.d though he is said to ha% c been soo>n at various places ab_ut the outskirts 3 of the town hi? friends have not been able r to trace him. The missinc; man was till recently employed in ono of the Invercar--3 gill banks, but gave up rhe position to r study law, and is supposed to have rather overtaxed himself in his efforts to prepare for examination. 8 On Wednes-dav afternoon a boy named Wm. Wilson, of Bluff, went out with two younger brothers to shoot birds with a 1 small rifle, and accidentally 6hot his i brother Richard through the head. The j unfortunate boy carried .his brother home, b and a doctor was ©ant for : but the child 3 was beyond his aid, and died soon after t his arrival. j The Rev. D. Maclennan, late of Cbals mere Cmirch, Dunedin, was inducted into t ' the charge of the Edendale-Mataura Island ' • Presbyterian Church on Tuesday last, and I in the evening was entertained at a wels come social in the -Eden-dale Public Hall, r when he had warm assurances of hearty 3 support from prominent mern'bers of the » ; congregation. Dunns 1 th*> evening a cheque • I was presented to the Rev. Mr Sang\sler, , j of Wyndham, in recognition of his ser- - vices as moderator during the vacancy. 1 T understand that the Tarawera G.M. i Company bsgin operations at once by ' pumping out the old shaft with a view to pushing on development work.