ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 13, 16 January 1912, Page 2

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Some two years -ego a number of chamois were imported to New Zealand and liberated on the Southern Alps. Except on one oocwision a few months after their liberation nothing was afterwards seen of the animals. A Wellington resident, who lms just returned from v. tour in the southeYn mountain district, states, however. thic/t one <member of' the herd wws seen recently by. a guide on the flats, nu.v Mount Oook. The chamois seen was alone, and) it is is doubtful whether it is a sole suivivor or merely a war derer from the flock.

Mr h. Cross and psjiy, consisting of Messrs D. McLean, C. Evans, r.nil F. Fortune, left the Bluff lust weeiv by one of C'apt. Rodrique's auxiliary vessels for Southern Fiord. 'Che. party-intends prospecting for gold and other minerals in the. vicinity o!; the spot where Mr Cross located goldbearing wash some months s/go. Mr ■Cross has great faith in Southern Fiord1 &s a field for pz-ofitable mining, and has spared: neither time nor money in backing his opinions by strenuous prospecting. So far, he has, unaided by any subsidy from the '-Mines' Department,, gained a measure of success. Anyone who has travelled in that wild region can appreciate the tremendous task the prospector ha.-. to face. Large sums have been disbursed by the Mines Department for prospecting parties in the North, with little or no return. The party under Mr Cross are »H practical miners, and can be relied npon to do-good work. Tlie opening of Fiord to the miner I', of national importance, and assistance to such a ppi-ty as: Mr Cr.o;:-s leads would meet with general ;tpprjtval. -

A London merchant states.in a let;ter to a. Dunedin business man (says the Star) that there is at - Home a growing demand" for New Zealand timber, especially kauri and ' whito pine. There is also an enormousl domand for white pine in Australia. During the past twelve months there has been <a considerable increase in the price paid for that timber by Mel-' bouirne merchants. A year ago the f.o.b. price for white pine for shipment to Australia, ranged from 6s> to 7s per 100 superficial feet, whereas the rates now are fromv'Ss 6d to 9s fid for the same quantity. It is said that it is now more difficult to obtain white pine in New Zealand -*it low cost, owing to the necessity for going far into the back country for it.

The necessity for people exercising care Avhen visiting centres of thermal ■activity was again exemplified on Monday ,at -Waimangu (says the Rotortia Tiiiies), when a young; .lady visitor was badly scalded. Being s. public holiday, there was uaturally a large number of people walking round with the guide,-, and the lady uu wittingly stepped off the path on Frying Pan Flat, her right foot going through the,crust into the eteam below.

*£A Kent Man," who lias been thirty-five years in South Africa, writing from Capetown to an English newspaper, says:—"Speaking* ;\v a mechanic, I wish to warn your readers that South Africa is not such .v hapyy hunting ground, nor the Inud of; milk and honey, us people in Ensrland; are led to believe.. Working men have had to struggle very hard for a bare existence. The cost of tlic necessities of -life is 30 per cent.,; and rent 40 per cent., higher tlnm in England. The prices of work-have been cut down to nearly starvation point. There are no labor organisations, and capitalists-have it all their' own way: TliouSands of people' have left these shores during the scute expression in trade, flying from poverty. South Africa- is not n white man's country; there is. such »■. preponder.ance of blacks who work for .starvation^ wages, and employers of labor don*t caa-e as long as they get their' work done cheaply. Artisans get from as to 5s a day; laborers, 2s to 3& ;: day; and farmers-boys, Is to 4s a month, with "food and shelter. It impossible for white men to compate with these .rates; and elderly men especially liave a bad' time, for tlieio is no old age pension here."

An interesting curio was discovered a Jew days ago by some children .Vlaymg on the- beach at the mouth, of the Wai r.aoa river (Poverty Bay), in the shape of a small metal disc, thickly encrusted with sand and other accumulation by the action of sea water. On further examination it was found to contain a reproduction of George the 111., with the British Cro.vn and shield on tho reverse side, and the wording, "In memory of good old days, 1765." It has' a' milled edge and had aparently been worn on a chain. The discovery has been brought tinder tho notice of Mr John Townley by Mr v Charles Hills, of Pakiriyiri, who offers the suggestion (says the Gisborne Herald) that tho token'was apparently lost by a-mem-ber of Captain Cook's party on the occasion of the discovery of NewZealand in 1769.

A Wanganui shipping man tells an interesting little story concerning the barquentine Carla, which lately went ashore at Wanganui Heads, and was ■afterwards bought by Hatrick and Co.. and floated. Some eight years ago a barquentine was built in a Dutch seaport. Immediately she was launched the keel of another was laid down, and the second, a replica of the first, was in due course put in the water. Both had Dutch names, but the elder ship of the twins was bought by a Dutch firm and called the Carla, and the younger of the twins was bought by Mr A. Hatrick, of Wangacmi, who gave her the name of one of his daughters—Alexla]. Strange, is it not, that after eight years the twins should have come together again ? One has had a comparatively uneventful life, spent mostly on the Tasman Sea; the other has sailed air the oceans, and at last, storm-tossed, battered, and forsaken, she' has been practically driven into the land of her twin sister's owner.

The unhealthy growth of the big cities is an all-round menace to Australia's future, says the Perth (W.A.) Sunday Times. * The accumulation, of a third of the Commonwealth's people in si:; coastal capitals is pernicious iron: every point of view—it hinders the development of the country,, promotes flaccidity and an excessive love of pleasure among the people, and renders it impossible to place the continent in an adequate state of defence. If ■'Australia, were invaded .to-morrow the Federal generalissimo would have to retain the bulk of his forces within cooee of Sydney and ;• Melbourne. The" outlying dominion's, would inevitably be sacrificed. Under protection there is no encouragement for a young man to go pioneering in the north. He

i refers to stay in one of the, big cities,, and get a job in a lieavilyproteeted factory, and go to the theatres, the races, the prize-fights, the crie"ket matches, and other of the multifarious amusements with which the big cities abound. Australia is over-run with straw-hatted "sports," but the men it requires most urgently, in vi-w of its White Australia policy, are the men who will go out into the wild, determined both, to subdue and fight for it—-to fight, should the occasion arise, like those jinm old veldt doppers who were the backbone of Rruger's army.

it is expected in Melbourne that early this year a report will be presented by the special committee appointed by the municipal conference to draft a scheme for the supply of pure milk to the children of the poor. The committee has already dune valuable work, and its conclusions, if <?i> dbr»ed by the general conference. should1 at any rate (says the Age) provide the basis of a. plan to which the Government and the proposed Greatsr Melbourne Council could give, effect. One of the recommendation's is "likely to be that the State should: purchase and ma"nage a model farm in the country' from which the municipalities would be able to draw the milk for the mothers, to M^hom tljey will act as. suppliers at certain depots established "throughout the metropolis. The farm would be so managed that the milk would be available at the not cost to the State—-interpret-ing net cost as the sum necessary to meet maintenance expenses and ■ the interest and sinking charges in connection with the capital sunk in the enterprise.

The highest tribute ever paid fc) the Melbourne rat was that which came recently (writes. "Woomera" ivthe Australasian) from Mr Donald Melville, M.L.C. He was^ talking to a. mtness in the Legislative Council about the foundations of the cool stores which the Government intends to build near Victoria Dock. "Do you think the rats conld eat through it?" lie asked. "It" is reinforced concrete, Ito 18 inches thick! Up in North. Queensland they will gravely, spin you yarns that the white ants eat iron rails;if they are given a little time allowance, but they go shy on rat yaras. I have heara ant stories and fisvhi stories, but I see tlwit.,the y.it story is going to beat them all.

Certain metallic elements have their sicknesses, but perhaps the tin plague is thie most remarkable. If tin catches cold, (says, the Londjoix Lancet) it:, will/decay, it will lose its lustre, And finally crumble to a- grey powder The change is not a chemical one, for. the grey powder is still tin, and it can be brought back by -careful warming to its original healthy condition. ApjKiiGntly, when the tin is very pure it,is more susceptible to cold and consequent decay... In fact, it may be made proof against the disease by alloying it witli other metsslsv' The disei;«e is a. source of consider able1' annoyance and disappointment to the. collectors of coins, who possess valuable tin specimens in their cabinets. This curious failing of tin may possibly have led! to the use of the word '"tin".as. a term of reproach,, as in stich' expressions as a ' 'tinpot institvition," or "a tin soldier." Even tin buttons have been known to"crumble in this way, and organ-pipes miwle of tin have been found to decay after a severe Avintor. ~ ■