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Grey River Argus, Issue 86, 31 July 1866, Page 3

We notice that tlie question of forming a General Penal Establishment for the Colony is to come before the General Assembly, a Committee on the silbject having been appointed. The necessity for an imstitiition of this kind has long been felt, the existing prisons being quite insufficient for carrying out the system of penal servitude. .It is worthy of consideration whether the most appropriate locality for the, proposed v settlement would not be some place on the West Coast, where the prisoners could be employed as at Portland in England, in constructing a Harbor of Refuge, or one that could be used by large ships. The bay above Point Elizabeth would be one of the best sites for such a harbor ; and we have the authority of Mr Balfour, the Marine Engineer, that the formation of a safe and commodious harbor there is only a, question of time and labor. The bluff and itills behind being for the most part composed of limestone rock,' the construction of a breakwater by prison labor would be comparatively an easy task. The utility of such a harbor would be immense, not only to the shipping trading to the West Coast, but to the many storm-driven vessels x that have frequently to run hundreds of miles out of their course owing to the absense of any. safe Port of Refuge on this side the Island. Stanzas on'the Maungatapu Murders. —The Stanzas upon the Maungatapu tragedy, by Mr W. Hogg, which were done such complete justice to by Miss Aifckin, at one of her recent readings, have been litho-.. graphed by Messrs Hodgson and Friend. The verses are surmounted by an excellent lithograph representing Grief wailing over the body of a murdered man. The verses are vigorous and expressive and betoken more poetry in the composer than is often met with.— Nelson Examiner.