COUNTRY NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 4011, 4 January 1876, Page 2

COUNTRY NOTES.

• 'H [From our JbcAongpa.) At the Victoria Hotel, Lawrence, oh needay, Hugh Craig, driver pf couch between Clyde and TuapeJta, was presented with a handsome gold watch end which had been (subscribed for by a number of residents of the district. Work at the Manuka Creek tunnel was suspended on Christmaa-day'and Boxing-day, and resumed on Monday night. The distance remaining to be pierced is about three chains. The stone through which the men are driving is very hard, and the workmen in either of the faces can hear the sound of the hammers in the other. All the outside work will be finished-in about two months. A lad named Andrew Aitkin met with a nasty accident at the Ttueri Show. • . He was riding a pony, when the animal reared and fell back on him. He appeared at first to be badly hurt, but his injuries did not turn out to be of a serious nature. . Mr Deans passed through Balclutha a day or two ago with a quantity of young trout, which he deposited in the Glenoamaru stream. Mr Joseph Murphy, of the Bridge Hotel, Kaitangata, and for nine or ten years storekeeper at Hindoo, died on Tuesday morning of apoplexy. He was at the Waiholk regatta on Monday, and returned to his borne the Same night. It is reported from (Mount Ida Chronicle ’) hope the report is exaggerated—that the managers of the local cemetery have established a most startling precedent. They deemed it expedient (rightly enough) that the unused portion oi the cemetery should be laid down in grass, and in order to accomplish this they let the ground to a settler, on the condition that ho should raise two crops on it, and then lay ft down in mass. Accordingly the ground wah tilled, and so thoroughly too that the road through the enclosure to ’the graves is covered at the present tune with a luxuriant crop of wheat. Lately when the friends'pf one buried in the ground took a stone to be S laced at the grave’s head admittance was eclined, because in entering with the vehicle the wheat would be destroyed. The stonp consequently has to wait outside until the crop is cut, or until some means are devised by which it may be transported, without injuring the crop ! Onr informant supposes that, should anyone be unfortunate enough to die before harvest the body would need to wait burial as the headstone has to wait erection. V The immigrants by the Waitara are not finding employment so readily ns could bs wished. The single women have nearly all cleared out, and some seventeen men wore forwarded by rail to try their luck at Gore and elesewhere, but the larger number aro still in the barracks. The demand for labor in Southland would seem to be pretty well supplied, as very few inquiries are made at the depot. Everywhere in Southland this season the crops and pastures are looking magnificent* and fanners and stockowners nave the promise and prospect Of splendid returns. ;; ' ’ An accident happened to Mr Jenkin Evans at the Blue Spur on Tuesday, by which he narrowly escaped with his life. It appears that he was standing on top of the face in company with Mr Kendall, another shareholder, when the ground suddenly gave way beneath them. Kendall jumped backwards, but Evans was precipitated to the bottom of the claim, a distance of some .forty feet, receiving a severe injury to his shoulder, and being otherwise much bruised.