The country is suffering badly from want, of rain, as over alarge aren there have been no showers of any importance for at lerist two months. The result is a serious shortage in the rice and sugar crops, and a delay in planting which makes some of the wi ter crops impossible. We are never affected over so large an area, or 50 seriously aware the northern and inland provinces and our winter is so mild compared with theirs that distress does not become so acute. But, as elsewhere, when the farmers are in straits there is a feeling of unrest all round.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.