MOERAKI.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 39

MOERAKI.

• March 2". — In my last I mentioned that it was raining; at the time of writing, and ' expressed m& hope tna* w« would have- a good fall. Unfortunately th» expectation, was-. ■ not realised*, amdi the weartber. has kept dry since then till- this- morning-, whetr a little- ; fell, andi a. drizzle or mtet has kept iup aince^ but indication, say- "TS<* rain." I ' hope we. will get' some before- liftag, as it is badly needed, and the. water supply for household purposes ia in a very low, state. Fishing 1 : — There haa been, a l&tle improvement in tha aupply oi fish this last week, one. boat having brought in about 26Q groper during; the last few days,, while/ another boat had nearly 100 on Saturday, It is- to be ' hoped that these are but a forerunner of ; good hauls, and tha* the fishermen will have few months' good, fishing-. They need it as much as the farmer's, need, the rain. Mr '. D~ Brown- worka a, set line (which' has a ' number, of baited hoofe hanging from it) in ' the, harbour, and - on, Sunday mosning hia catch, consisted of a grounds shark about IGft ! long; and: * large atingara; weighing between ' two and. three hundredweight. It seme of th«- ■ visitors wfio come to SKeexaki for their noli* ' days saw; the-, sharks * th'srt Brown: catcher ! I am. incline* to tfcnk they would* b» verj; 'chain a&orrfr Gaining on the HTamnden Btvdc.

I am told that when Brown hauled his linfc the other morning he found the head o9 a sbjirk hanging to one of the hooks, th« body having been bitten clean off as thougV cut with a knife. Brown reckoned! from th* size of the head that the shark had beett ,between 9ft and 10ft long; but, of course;, it was only conjecture on hi 9 part. Domain Board. — The 'Moeraki Domaii Board held a meeting on Saturday evening for the purpose of considering tenders which had been invited for leasing the Flagstafl Reserve of between 19 and 20* acres. I h»v« baen told that four tenders were received, two (the lowest) being the same figure, while the other two were at the same pricey per acre, one being from a local ma.n and the other from a Hampden resident who is lessee of a number of different sections in and around the district. I am given to Understand that the feeling shown oy one or two of the Domain Board members -waa rather warm when discussing which of the tenders should be accepted. However, no decision was arrived at, and the meetir~ "»asr adjourned until Wednesday evening.