LOCAL A. AND P. NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 20

LOCAL A. AND P. NEWS.

The Orown lands in Otago open for selection during the month of May include 23 sections in the Oatlins district' totalling 5202 acre? of second-class land divided into sections ranging from 105 acres to 300 acres. The tenure is optional. A pastoral run of 457 acres in the Clarendon district !s open for lease for a term of 14- years at a rental of £4- per annum. The Tuapeka Times reports that Messrs Lucas and Tburlby, of the Greenfield settlement, have purchased' 1200 acres of the Douglas Estate, better known as the ClydeTale Estate. At the third annual ram and ewe fair of the Wallace A. and (P. Association the yarding was a record one, but the quality was not of a high order, and as there was little demand, owing to the lateness of the sale, and farmers having already bought the majority of the requirements, prices were very poor. The officials, headed by the energetic seoretary, Mr Affleck, had everything in perfect working order, ana the sale passed off without a hitch. A large number of entries- failed to bring bids, and the majority were passed in. The National Mortgage report having sold privately, a very nice one-shear Border Leicester on account of Mr Jno. Kennedy, Dxummcnd, at five guineas, which is believed to ,ha\e been the top price for the sale. Others of the same class sold at from one and r a-half to three and a-half guineas, Romneys to two guineas, and English Leicesters one to one and a-half guineas, full-mouthed stud ewes 17s, inferior rams to 21s. Mr„Charles Carr, of Feilding, has purchased the whole of the purebred flock of Cheviots from Mr Barnhill. Mr Carr (6ays the Dominion) already has the best purebred flock of Cheviots in the Feilding district, winning the whole of the prizes in the Cheviot class at the last Feilding show. At the monthly meeting of the Waitahuna Farmers' Club Mr M'Millan reported that the dipping sea on was now closed'; that 11J543 sheep had been put through, and that he considered some important improvements would require to be effected on the dipping apparatus before another seaBon came round. —It was moved by Messrs W. J. Livingstone and W. Cameron, and carried—" That the question of erecting a new sheep dip, and also that of repairing and beautifying the grounds, be fatten up at next meeting of the club." In response to a letter from the secretary of the British and N ! .Z. Meat and Produce Company, setting forth the advantages of dealing with the company,' the club's secretary was inEtructeu to write for all information. A gentleman who has just returned from a trip through Clydevale, Greenfield, and the Tuapeka West districts reports (says the Clutha Free Press) having seen some splendid orops of wheat, the land, especially in Greenfield and in the Tuapeka West district, being well adapted for the raising of that cereal. One Greenfield farmer, Mr Victor Cross, secured a return of 47 bushels to the acre, and on another farm the threshing . mill turned' out 30 bags of wheat an hour, Bhowing that the yield was a heavy one. The steamer Clyde has been carrying full loadings of grain, as much as 100 tons a trip, to BaJclutha of late, and with another good cargo boat on the river the settlers, SO our informant;considers, would have no- j felling to complain about in getting their i produce to a market. He could not, how- ] ever, understand how the road on the south bank of the river from Clydevale to Bal- j Clutha should not be opened up. If it | Were much produce from the Clydevale ,

T side that now goes by a roundabout road to. Clinton ana' W-oiwera would he carted ' direct "to" BalclutKa, at a "'considerable saving to the grower. Why there is not a road available to: vehicular traffic alongside ..a navigable r river docs indeed seem to be one of those things "no fellow can un derstand.''