OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3115, 4 February 1871, Page 3

OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND.

* [From the Otago Daily Times ] The Land Transfer Act is to be brought into operation in Southland during the first week in April next. Strawberries, gooseberries, and other fruit are so plentiful in the neighborhood of Invercargill this year that they are quite unsaleable, and are in many cases allowed to rot ungathered. The great heat that has prevailed in Dunedin of late seems to have prevailed in Queenstown also. A telegram we publish to-day states that the heat at that place yesterday was "only. 80 degrees in the shade." At the Arrow the Chinese have turned the bed of the river and are reported to be doing well. With respect to the harvest in the Oamaru district, the local paper says : — ; The weather has been brilliant and warm, and has had the effect of rapidly : ripening the crops. Harvesting has . already begun, and we notice several , patches of oats ready to carry. Wheat . harvest has also begun in the Waireka , district, where the crop looks splen- ; didi Our Riverton correspondent, writing > on the 21st instant says :— The weathei > has been very fine lately, and harvesl i work will follow close upon the heels ol I shearing. The establishment of steam : communication "with Dunedin and the

intermediate ports is a great convenience, and will tend to develope the resources of this district. Opening up, as it does, a market for imports or exports, it is a great boon to the farmers and settlers here. With respect to agricultural matters in the Waitahuna district, our correspondent writes : — The crops of corn are looking very well, considering the absence of moisture. The straw will 1 be short, but the corn promises a fair average.. A rather severe frost occurred on the morning of the 12th. Potatoes received considerable injury. The season has been unfavorable for all root crops. The ground everywhere is extremely dry. Harvest operations have commenced in a few instances. I notice an autumn sown crop of wheat already of a yellow tingo— and a fine sample too. Barley also is looking well and forward. A Martin's Bay correspondent of the "Lake Wakatip Mail" says:—" We have no exciting gold news to communicate ; but it is fully believed by experienced miners that this is a gold bearing locality, and that it only needs the men and capital to bring it to, light in sufficient quantities to create a rush. Gold has been found not very far from the south heads, although it is not yet known to exist in payable quantities. The settlers not being gold hunters, have not formed a prospecting party ; but this is in contemplation.