COUNTRY NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2694, 5 October 1871, Page 2

COUNTRY NEWS.

SOUTHLAND., , One of the many advantages of railway communication at the Bluff is the fact that excellent firewood is delivered from the railway trucks to the residents alongside the line at the extremely moderate cost of LI per cord.—The salaries of the Otago railway officials employed upon tho Bluff and Wintqn lines, arc said to be four or five months in arrear. Perhaps to those who had previously been employed under the Southland Provincial Government, this may appear a trifle ; but to us it certainly speaks “ rottenness in the state of Denmark.”—Mr Garven, of the firm of Mair and Garven, drapers, Invercargill, being about to visit tiie home country by the present San Francisco mail steamer, was entertained to supper in the Masonic Hall, Invercargill, on the evening of the 25th ult., by between thirty and forty of his old friends and associates.—The Southland Meat Preserving Company’s works are about to be erected alongside the railway line, near Winton. The several departments of the preserving works are to occupy a building to be erected in one block of over 200 feet in length, by a width of 50 feet. The slaughterhouse is to be a detached building 75 feet in length. Mr M‘Gregor, C.E., Dunedin, the architect of the works, visited the site last week, and attended a meeting of the managing directors, held in Invercargill on Wednesday evening, when the tenders were opened, and that of a Dunedin contractor accepted, the name and amount of whose tender we have not beard; but the estimated cost was about L3OOO. Over sixty applications were sent in for the managership of the establishment. TOKOMAIRIRO. One hundred and twenty men are now employed upon the Clutha Railway contract, end the works are being pushed forward with 'considerable despatch, Work is being carried on at many points, and some portions of the line are already completed.—Mr A, M'Laren drove last week from the Toi Tois a herd of seventy bullocks,, among which wc» observed some of the finest fat cattle that have passed through for the Dunedin market this season, some q£ them netting over 110b lbs.—Another flour mill is in course of erection in the Waiwera district by a Mr Wright, late of Hislojp and Wright, contractors, Duntedin. The site chosen is upon the Waiwera stream, immediately opposite Mr Brooks’s farm.—Mr E. Allen, of Clinton store, Popotunoa, had in his employment a youug man named Charles W. Lawson, who acted as salesman of the goods conveyed round the up-country districts by waggon. On the 14th ult,, Lawson and the waggon-driver were fourteen miles above the Elbow when the king-bolt broke, and Lawson let for the blacksmith at the Elbow to obtain a new one, leaving the driver in charge of the waggon and stock on hand. As Lawson did not return as promised, the driv< r communicated with Mr Alien by the first chance, and returned to Popotunoa with the waggon, and upon Mr Allen taking stock on arrival, he found that it was LIOO short of the proper amount—this deficiency representing the probilble ’defalcations. He at once cotnmu- > uicate'd with jibe police, who traced the runaway to Jpyerpargill and tl) e f ro |s wbenqe he sailed by steadier to Canterbury. —-Bruce Herald,