TAPANUI. (From our Own Correspondent.)

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 95, 4 December 1869, Page 3

TAPANUI. (From our Own Correspondent.)

The rainy weather in the beginning of the week has made the fields and gardens look quite blooming, and we are in great hopes of having an excellent harvest. G-enerally speaking the season has been very dry, and the saw-mills have taken advantage of the favourable weather. Large quantities of timber have been delivered, and the Victoria Mill plaining machine has been found scarcely able to supply the demand. The boilingdown establishment had a trial last week. One of our local squatters having had the misfortune to lose a number of slieep, had the carcases I brought here and converted into ! tallow. Slieep shearing ha 3 fairly j commenced, the price being considerably lower than it waa last week. iSome of the shearers made a stand against this, but 18a. per hundred is about the average price. Great improvements, in the shape of new and improved buildings, are going on in Tapanui. Among these the new school and school-house, and the enlargement of Mr. Syme's and Mr. Macmillan's hotels, are most noticeable. In future visitors will be able to be much better accommodated than they could be formerly. It is surprising that none of the banks open an agency here, as the increasing importance of the place, and the great inconvenience business men are sometimes put to, would be certain to cause a branch to be well patronized. Cheques often are current among us for weeks, and even months, passing from hand to hand — the last holder often having considerable difficulty in obtaining his money. ■ Our Mutual Improvement Society has entered on its fourth half-year. Mr. Neish opened the session with an essay on a biographical subject. There will be an interval of two months after the next readings, which take place on Thursday. The sale of town sections caused some little stir, but most of them went :^t the upset price ; some few, howi tver, caused considerable competition.