TOWN AND COUNTRY NOTES

Western Star, Issue 2218, 1 July 1898, Page 7

TOWN AND COUNTRY NOTES

(from our own coebbspondbnt.) DRAINING THE LAND. At the last meeting of the Schott Commissioners for Otago, held in Dunedin on thn 20th inst, the secretary laid on the table a statement showing that since 1891 the commissioners had expended the aura f £350 in supplying their tenants with drain tiles. A very fair proportion of this amount has been spent in the W a stern District, and there is every reason to believe that the outlay has been amply justified by the results. A new demand was made upon the commissioners and that was for a supply of lime, bat as it is well-known that the benefits of liming the land are only appreciable for a limited number of years, the application was declined on the ground that liming the land is an exhaustive improvement. As limestone is known to exist in the Western District, it is somewhat renarkable that no sustained effort has been made to supply any of this useful fertiliser on an extensive scale and at a cheap rate.

THE DEED GINS INDUSTRY. , All the engineering establishments in Dunedin are kept very busy with orders for the supply of dredges. Some of these firms are said to hare orders booked for eighteen months ahead. Nor is this all. It seems that enquiries have come from Russia and Canada about the manufacture of these new gold savers. The Russian enquiry was for dredges to be worked in Siberia! “Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Blight and yellow, hard and cold,” What a talismanic influence gold possesses! It virtually brings all the ends of the earth together. ' ___ v. - SUPREME COURT. The Supreme Court has not yet completed its sittings. The case of Fleming against the Bank of New Zealand occupied the best part of three days, and there are still one or two civil actions yet to be heard. There has not been such a lengthy sitting in Invercargill for some time past. “ COME ” AND “ GO.” “ It doesn’t matter what sort of land he gets hold of, that man can ( make crops grow so heavy that the machine can scarcely cut them.” “What wonderful spell is brought into play here 1 The man you speak of must wield a magician’s wand.” “ Nothing of the kind. He knows the value of draining, manuring, and working the land properly. In short, he is a good practical farmer, hard-headed and possessed of both skill and capital. “ That,” said my informant, “ is the Secret of success on the land.”, Con•tihuing, he said, “There was always the difference between ‘ come ’ and ‘go ’ to be taken into account. This is well brought out in some verses by R S Sharpe : Dick Dawdle had land worth two hundred a year. Yet from debt and donning ho never was free. So he agreed to let the half of his land to a farmer for 21 years. At the end of ten years the farmer visited his landlord and said : »• Ten years I’ve been blest with success and with health, With trials a few-I thank God not severeI am grateful I hope, though not prond of my wealth, , . But* I’ve arranged to lay by a hundred a year.” " Whv how,” exclaimed Dick, “can that possibly be ?” (With a stare of surmise and a mortified laugh), " The whole of my farm proved too little for

me, . . And you, it appears, hare grown nen npon i half.” ( 0 i hope yoa’ii excuse me,” the farmer replies, .. . « But I’ll tell yon the oauee, jf yonr honour would know. In two little words oil the difference lies, i 1 Iways say come, and yon used to say go." { « Well, and what does that mean, nay good fellow,” he said, _ n Why this, sir, that I always rise with the son. Ton said go to yonr man as yon lay in yonr bed, , _ ~ I say come Jaok with me, and I see the work done.” THE WEIGHT OF CORN*. A Corn Sales Bill was introduced into the House of Commons which purported to lay down the principle that dealings in corn should be by weight and not by measure, the weight to bo the hundredweight of ll2lbs. It was pointed out that measures were used in adjoining counties in England which represented quite different weights. In Hereford, for instance, a bushel was 621 b, in Monmouthshire 801 b, in Shropshire 751 b, while in Warwick they have an extraordinary bushel of 7311 b. The confusion was bo great that in 1882 the Corn Returns Act laid it down that the equivalent for the bushel of the three different grains, barlev, wheat, and oats, should tibo 601 b, 501b,' and 391 b respectively. I t urged against tbe Bill that if passed it would be going back on an act of the previous session, which legalised the metric measure. The Bill was negatived on the second reading. TAKING AN OATH. When the Japanese take an oath they make a small incision with a sharp-pointed knife into the witness’s finder. A drop of blood is thus procured, and with this the declaration is sealed. This is not by any means a bad idea to seal an oath with your blood. It certainly appears to be more sensible than the Chinese method of blowing out a match, so familiar in vnur Warden’s Court. I was reading the other day of another plan still, which is to make the witness take the r oath after giving his evidence. I should imagine a great deal could be Bftid in favor of this latfcor arrangement.