CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 140, 11 June 1878, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To Thk EniTOR of the 'Evening Mail' Sir — I have been asked by several gentlemen why t did not commence jam making as well as wine making by private enterprise, and I wish tq state, for the benefit of these &nd the public ttt latge, that t did commence three different seasons, but the same obstacles came in the >Vay every year, namely, the Scsirdity at frliit: E^-aty yeaf- since 1874 } could have done with ?Q&0 gaiiohs oi fruit, but the largfest quantity that I could get in any one year up to the present year .was 2100 gallons; thus living iiie short of 4900 gal lohs, and had it hot been -for imported fruit, I could not have carried on business at all. To show that this is a fact I am now negotiating for 2300 gallons of such f tnits as are most wanted for jam making. Another greatjdifficulty that I found in the way waa that it is in the harvest time lhat the fruit is most wanted, and people will not leave their crops tp pull fruit at any price, afld as long as thete is a Casfe of fruit wanted ill Wellington, West Coast, &c, you Oahtlot get ohe here ; ihdeed, often wheh I have bought the fruit, iind wa§ eipfecting it ,ttl come in, I found that it had been shipped away and sold for lower prices than what I offered. When I was in Wellington in January last, I found that I could manufacture there far cheaper than I could in Nelson, and from Nelson fruits, and I wish furtber to state that such I a price cannot be given for fruit fit for jam ' making as can be given for the same sort of | fruit for wine making The price that I have been giving for fruit since 1869 to date, and calculating at the rate that I gave per gallon for black, white, and red currants, raspberries, pears, plums, apricots, and gooseberries -will average about 4d per pound. This will show that the present price for fruit will not pay for jam making. Yours, &c , James Smith.

Aa showing what may be dono with dynamite the Post srtys:— " The buoy which was sunk by the dynamite exploded under the Eli Whitney has been fished up, and now lies ou the wharf, a stauding testimony to the terrific power of dynamite. The whole of one side of the buoy hag been blown in, the thick iron haviug been broken and twisted as if it had been so much cardboard, aud even the solid iron support which runs through the centre of the biioy has befen suttpped in two. The battered and shattered cylinder has attracted a good deal of attention It should be stated that the buoy was fully 30 yards from the Eli Whitney. Au important point has just been raised as to the lighting of Wellington. At present the publicans, who are required by law to keep a light burning outside each licensed house, geuerally have their lights projecting from the sides of the houses, supported by brackets, and overhanging the footpath, and are in the habit of extinguishing them at midnight. The Public Works Committee of the City Council now has under consideration a suggestion that instead of the present system a rule Bhould be introduced requiring the public-house light to be a standard one, on the edge of the footpath oppogite the door, and to be kept burning all night.— Post. The question of Ghiuese immigration is being taken up on the West Coast and discussed iv the papers. A correspondent of the G.R.Argui, signing himself -"A Pick and Shovel Man," writes as follows on the subject:— "Many working men will say what, can we do ? I will answer, much if you will only try. Remember, unity strength. Others will say, it does not effect us, and why should we trouble our heads about it ; that is where they make a great mistake — they are slumbering in fancied security while the enemy is gathering strength to sap them to the very centre. Even if it did not effect them in a monetary point of view, we are all bouud by social ties to study the welfare of onr fellow-men; but it is the old tale of labor and capital. I do not blame the Chinese so much as I do those who employ them; they who are not with us are against ns To borrow an idea from one signing himself " Terrestrial," I would strongly urge all the European working-classes, not only on the West Coast of New Zealand bnt throughout the entire length and breadth of the British Colonies, never to trade or haTe dsalings with any employer of Chinese labor, never to darken the doors of an hotel or publii house where they are employed." A French paper has given currency to a statement made by a large vinegrower in the Bordeaux district, which will' have special interest for this colony at the present time. He asserts that the phylloxera . vastatrix will not exist in the neighborhood of strawberry plants, a parasite which affects the latter being a determined enemy of the phylloxera. His experience is that placing strawberry plants amongst the vines is a certain preventative against the phylloxera. The following approximately represents the time from England to New Zealand by the various routes: -By sailing vessel, 90 days; by San Erancisco route, 41 days; by sea through the Canal to Suez by Galle and Melbourne, 61 days; by overland to Brindisi, and by railway across Isthmus of Suez, 53 days; by overland to Brindisi by Singapore, Brisbane and Sydney,. 61 days. A ludicrous incident occurred on the Moanatairi tramway the other day. The tramway horse was standing near the Non- j pareil drive, when a pig came up and seized j the equine by tbe nose. The latter let out ! viciously, but his swineship held on, though frequently lifted off his feet. After a struggle of some minutes duration, the horse got rid of his tormentor, and skedaddled ignomiously. Under the heading of '•' A Small Matter of Costs," the North Otago Times, mentions that the following facts were elicited during the hearing of a small debt case there the other day :— " The plaintiff had obtained judgment some time. ago, and now appeared in support of a judgment summons. He asserted that the defendant bad been in regular employment for some considerable time, and was quite in a position to pay the amount of the debt; and, in answer to a question by the Court, he said that an execution had been put in, and the defendant's furnitnre bad been seized, but out of the amount realised (some £3 15s) he had received only -4s, the bailiff's charges and expenses swallowing up the rest. - There -must be a screw loose somewhere." Another Bismarck Coming.-~A Httle grandnephew of Prince Bismarck waß sitting on the Prince's knee the othec day, when he suddenly cried out, " Oh, uncle, I hope I shall be a great man like you when I grow up I" " Why, my child ?" asked his uncle. " Because you are so great, and everyone fears you." " Would'nt you rather everyone loved you ?" The child thought a little, aud theu replied, " No, uncle ; for when people love you they can cheat you, bufc when they fear you they let you cheat them." A Prolific Russian. — Peder Vassilefl, a peasant of the Government of Moscow, was twice married. His first wife bore him at 27 accouchments, children as follows: — 16 times 2 32 7 times 3 2t 4 times 4 16 His second wife bore — At eight accouchments 18 Total 87 Of this number 83 were living in 1872, when the father was 75 years old. These fact are perfectly verified. The family of Vassileff is well known, and it has been the object of Government favours.

A ship recently arrived in the London. Docks with a cargo of nuts known as vegetable ivory, from Panama. Each nut ia the size of a hen's egg, hard, and fine grained. The ivory is nsed for splitting ioto buttons, and for the tops of umbrellas, and is worth about £20 per ton. The following is what the Brisbane Telegraph says of the Sydney Exhibition;— The more that is seen of the Exhibition, the clearer it is that it is a decided failure. Four post bedsteads and curtains, sacks of baking powders, self-raising flour, patent medicines, wigs, dentists' paraphernalia, clusters of imported tumblers and cut glassware, and such like shopperies represent the industrial progress of the colony. Eine arts are represented by some ingenious examples of Chinese oil paintings ticketed — " This style, two for one guinea." A lunatic was arrested loafing about the gates of Buckingham Palace a short time ago. His idea wai that he had been born there, and that her Majesty the Queen was his mother. In answer to the Magistrate he said he had no friends in England, but some in Canterbury, New Zealand. The man's name is Charles Roberts, age about 35. Perhaps he wiil be recognised by his friends. We (Napier 7 eleg-agh) Ho not know wbat the professional etiquette may be, hut the following ad-Vettisenient appears in the Wananga, which, as purporting to come from a barrister, looks very qiuch like touting for business :-" Notice to the whole of the tribes of New Zealand— of Wairarapa, ofTaranaki, of Ahuriri, of Taupo, and Poverty Bay. This is a notice to you all, that none of you shall sign your names for the sale of lands, of leases, of pnortgages, or of anything concerning land. First come all of you to me, tbat you may understand what you are about to do. From Rees, Lawyer, Napier." This Melbourne Age exposes one manner in which the secrets of the ballot-box may be disclosed. It says:—" At the entertainment known as the Greenwich Fair, on last Easter Monday at tha National Agricultural Society's ground, it was discovered that quantities of ballot papers which had been sold by the Government as waste paper were used by one of the disposers of lollies as wrapping papers. The manner in which some prominent individuals voted at former elections was easily ascertained by comparing the numbers, on the ballot papers with the numbers on the electoral roll." The use of bad language is somewhat severely dealt with by Mr Kenrick, the R.M. at Poverty Bay. A few days ago an old offender was charged before him with two offences of this kind, and in each case a fine of £10. and costs was inflicted. A few days ago a fisherman in the village of Buckbaven, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, in Fifeshire, had some mussels put by for the purpose of being used as bait. In looking over these he was not a little startled on discovering, that a mouse had been caught and held firmly by one of the mussels. The shell-fish had closed as the small quadruped passed over it, and firm, as in a vice, the mouse was grasped. — N., in j Land and Wattr. Five men owu one-fourth of Scotland. One Duke own 3 96,000 acres in Derbyshire, besides vast estates in other parts of England and in Ireland. Another with estates all over the United Kingdom, has 40,000 acres in Sussex and 300,000 acres in Scotland. This nobleman's park is fifteen miles in circumference. Another Duke has estates which the high road divides for twentythree miles. A Marquis there is who can ride a hundred miles upon his own land. There is a Duke who owns almost an entire county stretching from sea to sea An Earl draws £200,000 yearly from his estate in Lancashire. A Duke regularly invests £80,000 a year in buying up lands adjoining his already enormoua estates. A Marquis enjoys £1,000,000 a year from land. An Earl lately died, leaving to his heirs £1 ,000,000 sterling, and £160,000, a year income from land. The income from land derived by one ducal family is £1,600,000, which is increasing every year by the falling in of leases. One hundred and fifty persons own half England, seventy-five persons own half Scotland, thirty-five persons own half Ireland, and all the lands of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, are owned by less than 60,000 persons. A San Francisco paper says thatfCalif ornia has an export of forest tree-seeds worth 10,000 dols. per year. The principal purchases are made for Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.