OUT HUNTERVILLE WAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 779, 31 March 1910, Page 8

OUT HUNTERVILLE WAY.

i; ,'/ '". AT THE STOCK SALE. '. .Keceutly I. took)a.trip out-Hunterville ■wa'y..(writes our travelling correspondent), and was pleased tosee how. well the country Jooked. The late rainy weather had a/wonderful effeotpn the grass lands. I cpuld\n6t:-help noticing how different a season, this.is to, last: year from a croppers point of..view. say from observations .made on. tho way that, there are not;as many stacks..to be seen by quite On making inquiry from some of, the agricultural farmers 1 heard everywhere the sauie.tale There had not heen anything like the yield of last year, but, on the other hand, prices were on a more satisfactory scale. Chaff, which last season was sold for anything from .£2 up, can be readily sold at £3 105.,; while,' really prime .brightistuff is worth more. • - I put in an hour or two at tho Hunterville sale. Like- other stack centres 'a very large yarding of sheop has taken place there, and anything with a claim to breeding has been ■ sold at. very satisfactory prices. There has nlso been- a wonderful advance in weaners and young cattle. At one sale I attended I: saw a line, of ■■weaners. sold at 285., which' not so very long ago would not lmvo -fetched more than 12s. \to Ids. Whatever. may havo happened in.the chief dairying districts m the way of'killing calves' this season, it seemed;to me there had not been. anything like the: "mortality in calves, up the Main Trunk , .line'which : has i prevailed for the last• few' years/ Biding. uj3 r the. main road, and-.just as I, was looking for .Mr. U.K. Simpson's homestead, which, was so prettily, .situated at. the base of. a bush-clad hi.ll.T was grieved to see/nothing but the'ehim- 1 aey eta'eks.. left;, the house jiad': been burned down qnly a shprt time before. Prom Pukiorieto Manganoko 1 was nearly smothered, by .dust, This road, which .was only partially metalled, is now in a fair way for. being put' in good order. ..It .was j n -parts a. veritable mud-hole in winter..' The. settlers .will' now. havo no .cause to .complain; and yet'there are sure "to be some grumblers. ' They will say, "Look at the big- stones they have- left" ' .—some people you. can't nlease anyhow. "When-1 think of other, districts: which I have been in since, and-where there is not a .stone, in the whole ■ country 'side, and where the.chance* of a metalled road ■is very, remote, indeed, it does seem unfair to 'complain because a'few', stones •.may. have beeu left, not cracked.-'. The former flourishing townships of Mangaoho and Ohirigaiti now wear a very second-hand look. In a very real sense, they., have "got left"—since tho railway went on. I. looked in to see Mr. Alfred Duthie»- at. Ohingaiti, and found him and his meuin. the sheepyards,,dipping. Mr. Duthie; like many another farmer to day, is anxious to know how to - compete with pennyroyal. ,' He has used salt ■with .some degree of success in tlie home pa'ddocks, but, as'he said, "one-can't salt nil the arm." There is no doubt, that noxious weeds are very much worse than they were a few years ago. Whose fault' is it?. :