NOTES FROM THE VALLEY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 24 June 1901, Page 4

NOTES FROM THE VALLEY.

[OUR OWN COSREBPONDBNT.]

Dairy Company.

This Company's Butter Factory -closed down for the winter on Monday last, after a year's successful operations. Tbe output for the season was 42 tons of firstclass butter, or an exoes3 of 4 k tons over the produce of. the previous session. Owing to the brighter prospects of the company, the directors were able to pay a higher price than formerly to the milksuppliers, who, this year received 3d a gallon for their, milk, those who oontinued after the Ist April even getting as much as 3£d. A good market was found for the butter, the average? prioo for the year beiog lOd a lb. The Directors have paid their way duringtthe year, and expect to have a surplus of nearly£loo when the annual balance is struck in August. The original cost of - starting the concern considerably exceeded the estimate, and a liability above the amount of capital was incurred of £1,450. This amount was advanced by the National Bank on the security of a joint and several guarantee of five of the directors. Though the guarantors hold a mortgage over the property of the company as a security, which is deemed a very good one, Boino of them are desirous of being relieved from the responsibility, which they have been under for some years.. An attempt is therefore being made to issuo debentures to the amount of £1,500, bearing interest at 7 per cent., the Company also undertaking to pay off £IOO a year from the loan so raised. As the seourity dff.ired is ample and the interest good no difficulty should be found in disposing of the" debentures. Aleadya considerable amount has been offdred by suppliers The Weather. At the time of the late Queen's Jubilee, we had weather up here which has ever since been called the Record Rain. Now that the Heir to the Throne i 3 visiting U', Wd are having a downpour which, possibly, will bo hereafter known as the Dukc-alian deluge. Interesting, though a Bore. Of the three .completed bores put down by Mr BilEyder on the upper part of Kapal dredtfragtr- claim—which by the way is : neitt below the Great Lead —the

best resulted in a prospect of 13 grains to the load or cubic yard. Another bore wont 8 grains. Mr Ryder is not at liberty to give me the depths, but from a perfectly reliable source I learn that an average of 20 feet was attained, showthat the boring previously done by the same party and which showed much shallower ground, must have taken place <Mi a bump or the main bottom. Hares are becoming a perfect nuisance to those of our settlers who have orchards containing young trees. Messrs Doig Bros and Mr Marshall aro serious losers by tho depredations of those vermin, which, immediately ori approach of winter, strip the young applo trees of their bark. Mr Mothven has been obliged to protect all his trees with wire netting, while others have gone to the trouble of smearing the trunks of the. trees with lard —a method which is found to answer well for a time. The damage is generally done in orchards which are adjacent to bush or scrub affording good cover for the rodents. It is seriously suggested that the Acclimatisation Society should be asked to lift their protection from hares in this district. Royal Yisit. Neither the flag 3 nor the commemoration medals about which we havo heard so much, reached the schools in the Valley in time to celebrate the landing of their Royal Highnessess in the way suggested by the Government. At the Ikamatua school, the Chairman, Mr McNeill, caused half-an-hour's enthusiastic loyalty by sending a supply of sweets for distribution to the children, but otherwise little notice appears to have been taken of the event, which many people consider momentous. Railway Station.

A growing feeling is being shown at Ikamatua in favour of asking the Railway authorities to change the siding from a flag-3tation to a booking-station in charge of a station-master. The amount of traffic certainly seems to warrant such a course, especially since the timber trade has sprung up in the locality. One complaint is that there is no security for parcels lef tin the station, and that there ia constant friction and irritation caused by the goods being accidently taken from the station by the wrong consignee.