SOUTH WAIRARAPA NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7677, 29 January 1904, Page 5

SOUTH WAIRARAPA NOTES.

(From a Correspondent)

Tho dry weather is becoming a serious matter in this district, and farmers are anxiously looking forward to Captain Edwin's prophetic change. Grass is burnt up to a cinder all along the line, and orchard owners are complaining that oven the fruit is being roasted on the trees before it has time to ripen. The roads, too, are dreadfully cut up, and unless the drought—for drought it is - lifts very soon, farmers will suffer a considerable pecuniary loss.

Greytovvn is still well stocked with Maori visitors, and business in tho retail shops has been excellent of late in consequence. Many of the dusky folk are waiting for the next sitting of the Land Court, which commences in Greytown on Thursday next. But, I fear, a greater magnetic influence still has kept the Natives hanging around : namely, FitzGerald's Circus, which opened to the usual packed and suffocating tent. The attraction of a circus appears to still have as great a hold upon colonial people as in the good old days gone by.

Firewood is becoming somewhat a luxury in South Wairarapa, and goodness knows how many of us will faro when winter and wet weather comes upon us. At Martinborough, for instance, it is only with tbe greatest difficulty that a firewood carter can be found, and then one has to pay 25s a cord for driftwood. Rata firewood, when obtainable, briugs 30s per cord without a flinch, so it is just about time someone hunted around the district for a coal mine.