DUNTROON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 823, 3 December 1878, Page 2

DUNTROON.

[FROM OCR OWX CORRESPONDENT. 3 December 2. The district has been refreshed slightly since Saturday afternoon by a strong Scotch miat, and if it continues for a day or two we shall have more hopes for our crops, which have suffered considerably by the late hot winds. We have, however, some fine patches of growing grain along the slopes of the Awamoko and Papakaio districts. On the flat lands of the Waitaki the grain bears evidence of the heat and force of the wind, the blades being withered for some inches from the point downwards. This, however, will not detract so much from its fixture productiveness as may be thought. In this respect no one can determine the amount of loss, if any, which our crops may sustain. The waterworks are progressing satisfactorily, and as far as the water has been let on in the race the soakage is quite unimportant. The flume at Frew's Gully is about half across, and the race-cutting is approaching Peebles. I would point out suggestivety that tree-planting, either poplars, tan wattle, osiers and willows, whenever and wherever practicable, along the banks of the race and on the flats and steep slopes, would be a means of preserving it, and. in the distant future of contributing greatly towards economising the cost of maintenance, besides supplying the country with a large quantity of very useful woods. It has been pointed out to me that the land owners through which the race passes would object to a system of tree planting, but I think that this difficulty might be got over by an arrangement with these people, giviiig them a certain royalty to the wood stuff, viz.—ln the case of poplars, say, planted four feet apart in the first place ; when the bole of the tree has attained a thickness of eight inches at its base, the land qwner may be entitled to cut the intermediate trees, leaving the growing timber at a distance of eight feet apart. Again, when the timber shall have become twelve inches in diameter,

it may be thinned out to sixteen feet. The wattle, as far as possible, should be preserved, on account of its valuable bark, over which the soil proprietors could have a royalty, and the s same arrangement would follow with the osier *aScl* , willow, which will be found most useful in the future economy of farming for the manufacture of baskets, &c. The road from this township up to the site of the Upper Waitaki bridge is lined with the huts and tents of the men in the employment of Messrs. Allan and Stumbles, who are actively employed in putting up the railway bridges of the Hakateramea line. The foundations of the first bridge over the Maerewhenua River are now being laid. The first two on the south side are put in, and the third is being finished. The danger from horses getting on the railway line, although diminished, is not stopped altogether, as the other day I was informed that the train narrowly escaped running over a fine draught horse, which had by some means or other got in its way, and only the watchful care and attention of the engine driver prevented an accident, which might have been of a very serious nature to the passengers and a loss of L4O or LSO to the owner of the horse, which must have been killed in the collision. The only remedy for this state of things which presents itself, is that of placing gates at the various crossings. I am informed that the Hon. R. Campbell intends to throw open some thousands of acres of land for settlement in the neighborhood of Duntroon. If such is the case, our township will become a prosperous one in a few years. At the Maerewhenua diggings the miner? are abandoning the hydigfeulic system for driving, which pays them better, and in the course of time they may find richer deposits beneath the false bottom.