SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 64

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

INVERCARGILL. June 4. There has been very little change in the local oat market since last week, merchants finding it impossible to sell to the North Island at prices ruling in Southland lately, while farmers are reluctant to acoept reduced values. The consequence is that business is restricted. To-day's values are:—A grade Gartons, Is 7id to Is 8d; A grade sparrowbills, Is 7d, to Is 7£d; B grade id less all round. There is practically nothing doing in chaff, but prices may be quoted at £2 17<5 6d to £3 2s 6d .per ton, on trucks at nountry stations. There is no change to report in ryegrass. docd heavy seed is worth from 2s 3d to 2s id from the mill, extra heavy lines fetching Id to 2d more.

The past week has been a quiet one so far as stock sales are concerned. The \ose of the market, however, has improved, jnd since last report a considerable- number pi ?iieep have been disposed of privately s* values slightly above those ruling revsatly. The fine weather experienced so far has enabled farmers to delay putting their sheep on turnips, and the consequence is that many who anticipated being short of feed before the spring now reckon that they will have ample to carry them over till then. At the Winton sale there was only a small yarding, about 1000 being entered. Many buyers were present, and. in consequence the sale was brisk throughout, and .practically nothing was passed in. 'A small line of fat lambs sold at 14s sd, a pen of wethers at 15s 4d' r and eoundiDcuthed ewes at 9s 6d to 10s Id. A nice fine of ewes was sold privately during the week at lie 6d, and a large line of mixed sexes at lis 3d. The enormous number of Jambs put - through, the freezing works this season bas undoubtedly caused a shortage of really good lines of lambs to carry over until the shearing, and it is anticipated that this class of sheep will be fairly tfear in the spring. The London market seems to show a slight improvement. Freezing buyers here have increased the limits about id per. lb all over, although when the present large amount of lamb afloat reaches the United Kingdom it is expected that prices will ease somewhat. Beef can still be-quoted at about 25s per KXHb, although private sales have been made during the week at slightly over this basis. I understand that there is an order in Southland at the present time for freezing beef at about the above quotation, though I have not heard of any actual business being done. Forward bullocks can be Bold at £6 to £6 10s, but store cattle are inclined to be dull of sale.

The price' of fibre has suffered a severe dron during the past week, and London cablegrams indicate a drop of £1 per ton in all grades. It is almost impossible to ascribe a reason for this 6harp fall, but it is probable that holders of stocks in London are realising so as to clear up their season's purchases, and are forcing fibre on the- market, thus causing the drop referred to. I have heard of sales that were made .a fortnight ago at £2l ss. f.0.b., being cancelled by London merchants at £2l. The ■fact of their being willing to make such a sacrifice indicates a great weakness somewhere in the market, and the fibre •business seems at the present moment to be- a very risky one. At present London values are £l9 for " common " grade, £2O 7e 6d for " fair," and £22 for "good fair.'' These prices are on the • basis of f.0.b.. Bluff. That, there is' a market for the ligier grade of our fibre is very evident from the fact that sales were made at the Dunedin Winter Show on the basis of £26 on trucks for high point " good fair" in pc'iits, and £?A .per ton on trucks 1 >r " fair " grade in points. The price of tow is unaltered, and thero is not much fear of the bottom dropping out of this market, as the local demand remains unsatisfied. June 6. The Otago Acclimatisation Society, in response to the appeal of the Mataura and Wyndham Anglers' Societies, has decided to give a £1 for £1 subsidy to enable the banks of the Minnehau to be cleared of scrub. The Minnehau is one of the best of our smaller streams, and provides splendid fiy fishing, the trout running about a pound each. I regret to Bay, however, that perch are now finding their way into it. Probably they belonged Originally to the lagoons at Wyndham and have been carried by floods into the Mataura and worked their way up the {Minnehau for a few miles. Mr Win. Brasch, of Harwood Farm, Titiroa, has sold his place to a close neigh-

' bour, Mr Mulcock, of Oaklands, and' he , will probably settle in Invercargill for a year or so before resuming farming i operations. At the annual meeting of the Southland i Building Society last week Mr Robert ; Brskine was again re-elected president ! without opposition. i Four criminal cases came before his | Honor Mr Justice Williams in the Supreme Court this week. In all four cases the Grand Jury found a true bill, but in two of these 'cases the charge .of criminal assault against C. W. Morgan, and the charge of theft of documents from the Land Transfer Office, Invercargill, the common jury found the accused not guilty. Archibald M'Kay was found guilty of forgery, and sentenced to cne year's imprisonment with hard labour; and James Wilson, builder, of Winton, charged with failing to keep proper books of.account, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment as a first-class misdemeanant. In Wilson's case there was no suggestion of fraud, but only of negligence, bringing the accused under the penaltv provisions of the Bankruptcy Act, his Honor remarking that if a man was unable to keep his books himself it was his clear duty, to get some one to keep them for him. In the case of M'Kay. however, the judge was very pionerly severe, remarking, in response to Mr Solomon's plea for clemency, that the case reeked with fraud. This latter case has excited very great intei'est in both Bluff and Invercargill. and there was a large attendance of the nublic at the court during the hearing. One point of the defence was that some of the cash that M'Kay was charged with converting to his own use was spent in the interest of his employers, the New • Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agencv Company, being given as tins to railway employees to secure special assistance in shunting operations so as to expediate work on the wharves and in the company's sheds, but if such disbursements were they Avere apparently covered in M'Kay's expenses, which had been paid as they were claimed. A » r nung man named James Bowling was killed "at Broad, Small, and Co.'s Waihoaka sawmill last Saturday through the breaking away of a hauler which he was driving. The engine got bevond his control, going down a. steep pinch, and he was thrown.out and so badly injured that he died in two hours. Mr Alfred Beaven. one of the oldest, best-known, and most hiqrhly respected farmers of Southland, died ft his home at Opa.ro. on Thursdav morning, after a verv short illness. Mr Beavan has been a farmer in the Western District f">r nearlv KO and onlv a few weeks •>to roM his fariri with the. intention of living in town. Mr Beavan was a verv successful farmer and one of the strongest supnorters of temperance reform in Southland.

Mr J. A. Mitchell, who has been a supporter of the Southland CaWonian Sooietv for- over 40 years, is to be appointed a life member- and presented with -a f "ll set of the soc'Hv's regalia. The weather in Invercargill for the King's Birthday was rather unpleasant. A large number of people fame in to town, somfl of whom found their way to tjw* new skating rink in Ch r de street, and others to the football matches. The most important of the football matches were the' Association match b a twpen Celtic and Nightmans, won bv Celtic bv 3 "oals to °. «nd that T>etwe,on Dnnedin Training College and Southland teachers, which WP <3 wo-" bv +he Du"°dinites bv fi points to 3. Tb° Young- Women's Bible ' TTmVn lv»ld their annual conference in St. Paul's Schoolroom yesterdav. The attendance during the morning was rather meagre, but in the afternoon and evening a large number of d»Wates oresent, yvrie riming from WaikaVa Vail"'", C 'X from d™*. a>"l six * vr >in Whn d{ r w T*ible Claw Union New Zealand ar* aiding *o riise £IOOO this VP3I- for the Ttnnedi.n Orphanage new buildings at Bay.