CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 150, 4 October 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

WELLINGTON'S 'WHITE ELEPEOffi The work on the Wellington Dock tlflfl beon discontinued. It has been in progress for three years or so, but the project was mooted thirteen years ago. At that time the main body of enthusiaato probably desired a dock so tEafc Wellington would be equal in status to Aacic?and in this matter. Auckland has CaJikipe Dock, as werybody knows, aitd Auckland would be glad to soil it to (Wellington for half price if It could te 1 shifted. How Wellington came to decide' to possess a white elephant is difficult to (ascertain, but it is remembered that pot©- ! dockers harangued the multitude aaS asked pathetically wihat ft disabled wwehip would do in time of war if tfe had : no dock to go into. Anti-dockers vigo> j ouslv threw cold water on the scheme. UwJijto tub

practically prophesied what has happened —ultimate failure and great loss of cash. The loss to the Harbor Board is now £40,000, and!, after throwing this amount into the sea, the Board is very glad that the incident is practically closed and that it will-not have to make shipping charges that would frighten most llaas out of the harbor. The contractors fought 'Nature, and Nature won, and it seems that the old Mother doesn't want a white elephant lying around Poneke. In all, if the dock had been completed, the Wellington Harbor Board would-have had to pay £350,000, so that if a "winged" cruiser happened to be in Port Nicholson and not Port Jackson at some future time she could have been overhauled and patched up. The ease with which loans for large useless works are raised in New Zealand constitutes a peculiar phase of the gambling fever. The raising of the loan for throwing into the sea was not authorised by the ratepayers, except technically, for in ail financial matters both in that city and in other places in New Zealand the vast bulk of ratepayers show absolutely no interest. In the raising of loans the bulk of ratepayers suffer for their failure to go to the poll. All that remains to be done to blot out the memory of Wellington's White elephant is to obtain legislative sanction to do what the Board has already decided to do—to quit pouring concrete into the toaribor for the tide to : suck away. CHOLERA. Cholera, like most epidemic diseases, seems to have cycles of visitation, gorging itself on the lives of its victims until it become exhausted and is unable to propagate until conditions are again favorable. Thius it seems likely that at some periods cholera ceases its alarming activity in all parts of the world and that wihen it again possesses the necessary strength it is more potent for destruction than war or famine. The cablegrams from Europe show the woeful progress of the fell disease. 'lt has claimed thousands of victims, and has stricken with terror vast communities. The most alarming development is fchat it has affected the great river Danube, and it is impossible to know under such circumstances whether it can be adequately fought by science, or whether it will feed itself to death in Nature's way. An authority has mentioned that cholera in modern times was first noted at Bundelkhand in I*Bl7, and that it raced through Upper India, causing many deaths, 50W) of which occurred in five days. From -that year to 1823 cholera raged through India, Ceylon and China, causing terrible devastation, spread to Central Asia and Russia, affected nearly the whole of Europe and was taken to America. In the 1848-9 and 1854 visitations to England it killed 70,00# people, and as late as 1892 it killed nearly a quarter of a million of' the Czar's subjects. Writers on Egypt speak of visitations of cholera to that country in remote times, and it is said that a particularly virulent attack was made there during the sixteenth century. Owing to its awful infectivity and the ease of propagation, all countries should be armed! to resist the dreadful invasion. Australia has already taken a step to meet a contingency, and there is no question that both t'he Commonwealth and this Dominion would be favorable breeding grounds for this awful disease. It is hoped that New Zealand may follow Australia's example in making such preparations as may (be necessary to make the possibility of infection remote.

LAND TAXATION IN BRITAIN. The Opposition newspapers at Home have greatly exaggerated the difficulties to be faced by landowners, in making the new taxation returns. The Times told its readers that the new form covered "four closely-printed pages of foolscap/ and this statement has been circulated broadcast, together with alarming stories about the perplexing character of the questions to be answered. A landowner who wrote to the Daily News (London) on the subject said -that the four pages of the form he had lying before him were printed in large type, the lqft side of each page .being occupied by. ,plain questions, and the right side remaining blank for the answers. On the front name and address, and state whether his name and address ,and state whether his property was freehold, leasehold or copyhold. The second-page asked him to name the land, describe it, state whether it was let, and give other perfectly straightforward information of a similar kind. The third page required replies as to fixed charges, when the land ha<J last changed hands, the price paid, and the amount of money spent on improvements since that time. The fourth page ended the compulsory questions by asking whether the land contained minerals. The owner had the option of assisting the official valuators by giving his own estimate of the value of his land, and was expected to explain how he arrived at his estimate. The correspondent remarked that the people who were wailing so loudly about the troubles of the "two million property-owners" omitted to mention that the vast majority of the owners held very small sections, and would fill in the return without the least trouble. Of the 77,000,000 acres of the United Kin&lom, over 40,0010,000 acres were held by only 2500 people, and these big landowners could well afford 'to employ expert assistance in making up the valuations. "Any troubled landowner is hereby informed that I will take all the trouble off his shoulders if he will present me with the cause of it," added the correspondent, "or even if he will make me his heir." There is no record of this sporting offer having been accepted.