FAIRLIE CREEK.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2475, 13 March 1882, Page 4

FAIRLIE CREEK.

[PBOM THU OOHBBSPONDBNT OP THE PBBB8.”J

Although the weather during the past two months has been very broken and unfavorable for harvest work, the bulk of the grain in this district is already in etack r the only grain not yet harvested being a few patches of very late oats and spring sown wheat. Several threshing mills are now at work, and the results appear to be very satisfactory. Some of the earliest and. most promising crops of wheat were severely shaken by the nor’-wester, which did so much damage throughout North and South Canterbury in January last. Turnips are pretty extensively sown in the district this year, and ore, as a rale, looking very well. The dry weather experienced during the summer along the sea board was not felt in this inland district. Frequent showers from the dividing range kept the surface of the land moderately damp. For the same reason the young grass which was sown this year is looking remarkably well. The freehold land is held principally in large blocks, and therefore very little attention ia given to dairy farming, the bulk of the cultivated land being under wheat, oats, grasses, and turnips, there being only one or two fields of barley in the whole district. The ten mile extension of the Albury line to Fairlie Greek is not yet completed, nor is it likely to be in time to take this season’s grain to market. The scarcity of harvest bands forced the contractor for the heavy cuttings to cease operations for a month or two during harvest.

The five members required for a licensing committee for the Mount Cook riding of the Geraldine county were duly nominated and elected without any opposition, the inhabi. tants not taking much interest in the matter. The five members elected are Messrs Donald McLean, J. E. Goodwin, J. Wilson, Sandham Gillingham, J. Hinckley, all of whom reside within a few miles of the township of Fairlio Creek,

Autnmn being the most favorable season for “doing” Mount Cook, parties of tourists aro almost daily to be seen joyfully journey-' ing to the foot of that father of the Sonth,Alpiuo family. The excursion parties seldom get within twelve or fourteen miles of the mount itself, and after looking and wondering for a time, return homewards, thinking perhaps that the satisfaction of having “ done” Mount Cook is counterbalanced by the discomforts of camping out in a drizzling rain, which kind of weather has been very common this autumn.

It is nearly a fortnight since the party of Alpine tourists and guides passed through Fairlio Creek on their way to attempt the hitherto unachieved feat of scaling Mount Ocok. The weather has not been very favorable for their purpose. . Mr Green and his party deserve some reward for their plucky endeavors. They will have the honor of getting higher than anybody else, if they do net get to the top, but I hope they will not do so the first time of trying ; it would be rather galling for a party of outsiders, and for the most part of foreigners, to be able to ■eay, "We came, saw, and conquered. If this attempt fails we shall have the excitement of other parties coming to beat their predecessors.