ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 96, 26 April 1906, Page 1

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

" I have been considering the question of prison labor," said the Victorian Premier, Mr Bent, on Saturday week, " and am going to submit a scheme to the Cabinet. 1 propose to use prisoners to improve not only the land, but roads as well, and I propose to give thorn wages, so much per week, so that when they are set free, instead of being penniless, they will have a little to make a fresh start with. tVork is a great reforming agency, and I propose to use them and reform them at the same time."

Reports of Melba's ill-health come from St. Moritz and Davos Platz, where she has been seeking relief from the obstinate cough that followed the attack of influenza which interrupted her last engagement at the Metropolitan Opera House. She has never fully recovered her health, and the greatest physicians in Europe have united in sending her to St. Moritz and Davos, where consumption specialists conduct a sanatorium.

New Zealanders will be interested to learn that the family of the late Sir Julius Vogel have recently come in for some bequests under the will of the late Mr Benjamin Isaac, of the firm of Isaac and Samuel, commission merchants, 22 Great Winchester street, London, who died on December 15th, 1902, aged 82, and left estate of the gross'value of £359,327. Under the will the testator beueathed £6000 in trust for Phoebe Vogel, £6000 to Frances Vogel, £3000 to Henry B. Vogel, and £5000 to Julius Vogel.

A conference with local bodies' deputations at Havelock ended, last week, the Hon. C H. Mills took the opportunity of referring to the proposal to cut a tunnel through^ the neck separating Te Mehia Bay, Kenepuru, from Onahau Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound. He said that the very best service that could be expected for some years, between Havelock and Wellington, was two steamers each week—it might be some years before that was established, but it would be many years before it was exceeded. So that in that case what the poeple of Havelock and the Sounds should agitate for was a means of quick transit to Picton, as the nearest port of departure for Wellington. By means of the Onahau tunnel and a fast launch service Havelock would be within an hour and a half of Picton, and settlers in «the Sounds could daily take their produce to that port, for direct shipment to Wellington. In addition to that, he was sure that if there was such a quick and direct service to the Sounds and Havelock many people who now stopped at Picton would continue on to Havelock, and thus the district would be advertised. If the tunnel was made wide enough for vessels carrying wool to pass through, he believed wool could be placed on the Home boats at Picton for Is 6d per bale. The tunnel would be the greatest boon imaginable to the Sounds and Havelock. It was the isolation of the district that was killing it, and any effort made to lessen that isolation shoud be heartily supported. — " Guardian."

A Liberal and Nonconformist member of the new House pf Commons, writing in March last to a friend in Christchurch, says:—"There is no doubt the education question will be on<? of our difficulties. The logical solution is no doubt the secular, though I believe the vast majority of the people of this country wish to have Bible lessons, but the difficulty is that the strong denomiuationalists, including the Roman Catholics and High Anglicans, are able to say that if there is any form of religion taught, nothing is satisfactory to them that it not in harmony with their special tenets. My own impr^ssipn is that if pur present Educational Minister- were to introduce his Bill on the secular lines, indicating that ho would be perfectly willing to introduce the Bible for ail schools, if general consent was expressed, he would be taking the wise course. The present House of Commons is perfectly different from any that has preceded it in the composition of its members. There are a.far larger proportion of workers of all descriptions ,and I should be surprised if some good work is not done,"

Pigeon fanciers will be interested in a remarkable feat performed by a hen bird h.elqngjng to Mr Tucker, o f Palmerston North on Sunday last. The bird was purchased by him from Mr A. Stewart of Christchurch over three years ago, and since that time has been flying around with other inmates of Mr Tucker's loft. On Sunday morning, however, she apparently suddenly made up her mmd to return home, and went straight for Christqhurgh, arriving there that afternoon. The incident appears more remarkable when it is stated that the b,ird had never previously shown- any desire to g@t? away.

Angora goats (says an exchange) are not a novelty in New Zealand, but it is certain that there is no adequate appreciation in the colony of the value of these animals. Their special utility consists in the fact that, lyJiile' "tliey will thrive splendidly in'rough country, they enable people of limited means, to whom they may belong, to keep themselves in meat, and to make a profit from the fleece, mohair b^ing required in. the niariufacjtm'e. of all lustrous goods. The ordinary goat yields coarse meat and milk, but the Angora returns a meat which is regarded as superior to mutton and good milk. The way to rear the Angora is to get a pure buck and cross it with a common goat. The prepotency of the breed is so gjrsa| tfraiiWper cent, of thq kids iii' "such a case will be pure white, and the clip in the fifth cross is saleable in the London market as mohair. >.