Interprovincial Items.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 4280, 19 November 1901, Page 3

Interprovincial Items.

The Englsh Church at Balclutha was lighted with water gas for the first time last week. All the ballast men on the Wedder-burn-Blackßtone Hill section of the Otago Central were paid off on Tuesday week with the exception of about a dozen (says the Mount Ida Chronicle). The section is now practically complete. The Gisborne Harbour Board Engineer has advised the Gisborne Borough Council that the septic tank sewage system is not so suitable for the borough as the Shone system, which Mr Mesfcayer, C.E., has carried out in Wellington. An exceptionally dry spring is being experienced in Auckland, and already the effect of it is being felt at the Western Spriugs waterworks. There is, however, every reason to hope that the new auxiliary supply from Nihotupu will be available before the end of the summer.

The obtaining of cargo from New Zealand for the Home market—or any other market for that matter—is a more difficult undertaking at the present time than it has been for many years. Quite a fleet of cargo tramps are laid up or are “ nosing ” about the various ports of the colony without any prospect of ultimately departing as “ full shipsand as freights are cut to a very fine margin some of the large carrying companies must have suffered severely this winter. Regulations under the Flax Grading and Export Act are to be prepared at once. The grading of flax by a Government official is now compulsory, and a grader will have to be appointed for each of the principal ports. The charge hitherto made by the Agricultural Department has been at the rate of 3d per bale, and it is probable that no alteration will be made in the amount, whichever grader is employed in future. Sunday’s bitterly cold weather in the district around Palmerston culminated in a destructive frost in the evening, and next morning the various potato crops, both in and adjacent to the town, presented a very blackened and withered appearance. Considerable damage (says the Standard ) has been done to the crops, some of which, growing in exposed situations, appear to have been completely destroyed. In any case the loss to growers will be of serious moment, most of the crops being nearly fit for digging. Writing anent agricultural matters the North Canterbury correspondent of the Press says that some of the farmers have been getting so gloomy at the want of rain on crops and grass, that it had an effect on their attending the races and show. If the rain on Thursday and Saturday had come the previous week, it

would have made all the difference. The fall of rain has, how'ever, freshened matters all round, though it has not yet penetrated far into the soil, and it is the root moisture which has failed most seriously. It can neither be said that stock look well, nor that crops are forward. Poultry breeders have found the weather very favourable, but orchardists have joined in the silent prayer for rain, and it is to be hoped that with the indications of fair and very healthy looking fruit prospects, they will now get a supply. Shearing, of course, has gone forward on the farms and paddocks on the stations, and the operations on the hill sheep will now begin in earnest. Wool yields are not heavy, but the staple is generally sound when washed from the earth and dust of a somewhat dry and windy season.