LOWER VALLEY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1286, 25 January 1883, Page 2

LOWER VALLEY.

[from our ows correspondent.]

Most of the settlers in this district are very busy harvesting and the crop is an unusually abundant one. Reapers and bindera are now the order of the day and when once in thorough working order tho way in whioh they do the work leaves nothing to be desired., But the, machinery, is very complicated and by no means easy to put together, and a great deal of unnecessary and vexatious delay has been the result, In one case an expert from Wellington had to be telegraphed ior, and upon hi> arrival themachinery was quickly adjusted to the owner's entire satisfaction. That bete noir of farmers, at this season—a sou-wester—has at last arrived, sweeping np the . valley with an ominous roar, Reaping has been going on till ten and eleven o'clock at night, but a large of grain still remains to be cut, and veiyimuch of it, unfortunately, dead ripe. This being tin hour or so of heavy wind will destroy the work of months, 'No wonder, then, that our

friends think they cahcot better employ. : themselves on Sunday than in endeavotir»' ing to save some portions their crops, A heavy fire was raging on Saturday in the bush at the Tutu, and the rqad /roiu Greytown was for tome impassable. The house occupied By Mr Tweeddale wa«burnt to the ground, but the furniture and effects were saved. The • fire crossed the road and the bush af . Mohiki is fairly alight and burning fiercely •and should the preaetit : high"' wind con*" tinue it ib* impo«;ibls to say. to what extent the firer may be spread,. It is.ofton . difficult to trace the origin of afire, but it" is a fact that a bottle thrown amongst inflammable material will frequently act'< as a lens, converging the r»y« of the iqd, and that many fires hive bean cauied by this meant, . - ;V Our library is' now opened at Mr Green's shop with a carefully selected assortment of books which wilt shortly be, considerably inofeased as (thb initial order I has riot yet. been completed, and the Government-grant in aid will no doubt soon be : to hand.'-

There wasa. fair muster of oricketeri on' Saturday and some nood hard'practice wap indulged in. As the match with . Greytown, ; the invincible, is expectod to coine off in a few week) time, our-'inex muit bestir themselves and priotice'hard ■ • ■' and regularly,