COUNTRY NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 3741, 18 February 1875, Page 3

COUNTRY NOTES.

(From our Exchange*.) On Wednesday last the land in the Waikaka 13 ui dred on the defened payment system was open for application at the various land offices. There are in ail twentyseven sections open, and some twenty applicants applied at Iruvreuco for mo t of these sections. It is expected there v. ll be at least 100 applications for the lot at the different offices. Tho twenty above referred i o have written to the Waste Land Boar'b asking if it were possible for the Board io postpone the day of application for 'and in the Waipaboe, Kaiwera, Fukeran, and Knriwao Hundreds until after the balloting for the Waikaka land, ao that those who were unsuccessful at the ballot for it might have a chance of obtaining a piece of land on either of these other Hundreds mentioned. Mining operations are in full swing at the Blue Spur, the clank of the stampers being unceasing, Sundays excepted. The Provincial secretary has been mak'ng a tour of several of the Hundreds about to be opened in the Tuapeka district, and on the 4th inst. visited the Heriot Hundred. On the lltb inst., the services in connection with the induction of the Rev. B, Drake to the pastorate of the Presbyterian congregation at Cromwell took place. The Revs, Messrs Bannermau, Cameron, and Telford, who were deputed by the Clutha Presbytery, performed the ceremony usual to such occasions. A telegram to the ‘ Tuapeka Times’ says:—“A soiree was afterwards held in the Athenaeum Hall, when all the ministers present, excepting Mr Telford, addressed the meeting. Mf M ‘Kellar, Goldfields Secretary, and Mr Purvis, engineer, also delivered addresses. The affair was altogether a great success.” An American wool buyer has recently visited Invercargill, and purchased upwards of 660 bales, being the clips of four stations, besides a number of settlers’ lots. The brand of Messrs Thornhill fetch* d Is 3d in the grease. The other pricts were equally satisfactory The reports read at a recent meeting of the buggett and Cornish Quartz Mining Conpany, Skippers, were considered so satisfactory that it was resolved that the capital should be increased by the issue of 6,000 shares of LI each, the present holders to exchange for the new issue. The object which the company has in view is the opening of the mine at a lower level.

At the sitting of the District Court at Invercargill. William Henry M‘Cregor was convicted of obtaining monies by false pretences, and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. That mining enterprise is not altogether dormant in the district is proved by the Blackstone Hill residents and a few others associated with them. These gentlemen have determined upon prospecting the W oolshed reef on the Blackstone Hill in a thorough and systematic manner, and for this rurpose contribute a fixed charge all ■ round, payable weekly. Abbot’s lower contract on the Mount Ida head race will bo finished in about a month. This work completed, forty-five miles of race will be connected, extending from fi s c and ahaif miles above Johnstone’s contract, above Blackstone Hill, to within two miles of Naseby. The last two miles which will convey the water into Naseby only remain to he cuk A good supply of water will then be available from the numerous tributaries which the race crosses, especially during the months of April, May, and June. The accommodation at the Post and Telegraph Office at >St, Bathaua is such that if two persons meet there on business, one of them must remain outside whilst the other is transacting his business. At least so says a correspondent of the Mount Ida * Chronicle.’ The crops in the Cam 9 m district are turning out remarkably well. In oats, seventy bushels to the acre are quite common, while in one paddock belonging to Mr J. Williams tbe grain threshed out ninety-three bushels, a yield that the grower may well bo proud of. Should the weather prove propitious for stacking and threshing, the farmers will have no cause to grumble at the harvest of 1876. A Ealclutha correspondent of the ‘ Tuapeka Times,’ writing under date of February 16th, sends us the following items of news : —Harvest operations are in full swing in this district. Labor is rather scarce, and consequently wages are high—good harvest hands receiving from 10s to 12s a day. From alt parts ef tbe district the reports art that the harvest is very good. A start wamade last week with the railway bridge across the Molyneux here. The drainage channel at Waipori is com pleted at last, and the engineer was ex pected to pass the work yesterday. Several claims adjacent to it on the flat had been partly opened, and work will be gone on with as soon as the necessary permission is sranted. Messrs Matheson and M‘Donald have purchased from Mr J. M'Coombc his sheep run and stock thereon for the sum of LI,OOO. Th« lease of the run wr.s purchased by Mr M'Coombe at the sale of small runs taken from the Tur.peka commonage last year, at an annual rent of Is 3d per aero. 3 he party engaged surveying tho Dunedin Moeraki railway fixed on the moat prac ticable route for that portion of the lint passing through Palmerston on Monday. It is rumored that tbe station will he ,on that vacant piece of ground a little to the north east of Mr Johnson’s, blacksmith.