LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 55, 27 December 1882, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

• * Fritz Jenssen, Esq., Mayor of Palmerston, has been appointed a Justice of the Peace for the colony. Mr Snmuel Daw will be the large-t contributor to the sports fund this year. His conductor has paid in nearly £6, collectid for trap fares to the sports ground. A mob of 3,100 sheep brought from Napiei\ passed through Feilding on Christmas Day, en route for Hawera. They were an exceedingly fine and healthy-looking sample. We have to acknowledge receipt oF the December number of the New Zealand Industrial Gazette It possesses tlie customary quanlity of valuable and eutertaining information. The Colonies and India advises fruit farmers from Southern Europe to emigrate to the north of New Zealand, where the editor considers there is a good opening for those experienced in the culture of sab-tropical fruits. The French scientific journal, "La Nature," gives the following curious incident, showing the enormous power of molecular forces -. — The Italian ship Franeesca, loaded with rice, put iuto port on May 11, at Fast London, leaking considerably. A large force of men was at once put on board to pump out the water contained in the ship and to unload her ; but in spite of all the activity exhibited, the bags of rice soaked in water gradually, and swelled up. Two days afterwards, on May 13, the ship was violently burst asunder by the swelling o£ her cargo. The Daily Telegraph of the 29th Nov. publishes an article on the rapidly in . creasing prices of meat, which encourages New Zealanders who contemplate shipping frozen mutton to England to persevere. "We learn," says the writer, " that England consumes 1,800,000 tons of meat annually, out of which she produces but 1,205,000 tons. Hitherto the annual deficit has been supplied from America, but meat is now as dear in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia as in London. Frozen mutton will doubtless come to our shores in large consignments from Australia, New Zealand, and La Plate. Years upon years, however, will have to elapse before we can expect substantial help from these sources." The Prudential Assurance Company of London is the largest in the world. It was founded in 1848, and its safety and stability are guaranteed by large accumulated funds invested in the highest class of securities. It has an Industrial Branch similar to that of our own Government Life Insurance Department, and ita annual income in this branch exceeds £2,000,000, while £4-,000,000 has already been paid in settlement of industrial claims. It is gratifying to find that in our colony, ani even in this district, industrial life assurance, which means very respectable suras assured by small weekly or monthly payments, is meeting with considerable favor. Fruit of all kinds is very abundant in and around Feilding this season. Having made an inspection of some of the settlers' gardens, we have been surprised at the immense quantity of the smaller fruits especially. In some instances orders of from 50 to 100 quarts of gooseberries have been executed without making any apparent diminution. There is also an abundance of currants, raspberries, and strawberries, while of apples and stone fruit there is a fair show, notwithstanding the unfavorable winds which ■prevailed at blossoming time. As every year sees considerable fresh plai - tations made, this should soon be a great fruit producing district, and there should be no need to import ja*ns, &c, from other places, as is largely done at present.