NORTH AND SOUTH.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1989, 20 February 1914, Page 10

NORTH AND SOUTH.

CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. Mr. H. G, Hill (organiser for the Bristol and Dominion's Producers' As-, sociation), who has just returned from a three' weeks' tour of Otago and South Canterbury, states that too much rain has been hampering the harvesting operations: •! The crops were well up to.the standard' everywhere,/but those which had;not been harvested early were likely to suffer' by tlio abnormal rainfall that' Was being experienced. The Tai;eri'Valley was practically under water when he was there about ten days ago, and'the farmers were becoming rather anxious. "With the same number of cow's and" a -wonderful plenitude of grass, tho dairy were not getl?in'g~'the .saine 1 amount of butter-fat owing to the'.watery nature of the feed. 'At. Balclutha, Mr. Hill gave a limelight lecture on Bristol as . a distributing centro in England, and,_ he states, was given a splendid reception.. The.re.were among the audience oyer a hundred shareholders of tho Balclutha Freezing Company. He was also successful in interesting the Farmers' Co-operative Association of South -Canterbury, a. very concern, with headquarters at Timafu.' ; In comparison with tho south, Mr. Hill Quoted. Poverty Bay, which district •he had visited prior to going south. There they had had no good rains for two years, and the ground was baked hard by a particularly torrid sun. The Tokomaru Freezing "Works wer'o absolutely "Watching" for water when he was there, and the whole country looked 'as if' it Was in an advanced state of thirst. Whilo in Poverty Bay, Mr. Hill visited the'Moiu district, which, in his is destined later on to be orio'fof the. richest in New Zealand. There, were patches of; country, there that•■lyould equal in richness the best parts of Taranaki land, which had noum. ishedjthe'.'finest native.bushiin'Hfevls!-* »nd. • Mr; Hill left for Marlborough yesterday. , .