CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 212, 16 December 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

COLONIES WANTED. The strength of Britain is the weakness of Germany. Herr Lindequist in the Reichstag recently said that Germany must have colonies, and made the very sensible remark that shortage of raw material should be supplied by these colonies. The fact that Germany has no colonies which are not a burden to her leads one to the interesting speculation as to what means Germany would employ in gaining territory where she could grow wool and cotton. Probably the shortage of the cotton supply inspired the German politician's speech, but, be it noted, England also shared in the shortage, and was infinitely more gravely-af-, fected than Germany, because she uses a much greater quantity of raw cotton. Britain, which wants more cotton than any other nation, is dependent almost solely on the United States for it. If the German politician's ideas are the ideas of the Fatherland, and Germany wants to be independent of outsiders for supplies, it is an idea that might well be adapted in Britain. Britain has enough colonies to grow every morsel of raw material she needs, and it is by colonial development that dependence on foreigners will become unnecessary. No doubt if Germany seriously engaged in aggression in order to win territory for the production of cotton or anything else, interesting complications would ensue, and the ultimate schemes of colonisation would be regarded with acute interest by Britons the world over. As we have so often said, the German is one of the world's best colonists under foreign flags, and there are more naturalised' Germans under the King of the Britons than in the expensive colonies over which Kaiser Wilhelm reigns. The most interesting feature, however, in this suggestion that Germany should throw out branches, lies in the fact that she must be aggressive to do so, and if the policy is received with kindness by the people in Germany, the world will watch with some keenness to see in what direction our cousins steer. FIVE PER CENT. Owners of house property in New Zealand will probably be interested in a recent cablegram from Sydney which mentions that an attempt will be made to induce the State Parliament to legislate against high rent 3. The suggestion is that the rental of a dwelling shall be at the rate of five per cent, on the declared capital value of the property. As property owners in New Zealand demand and obtain a much larger percentage in rent than their New South Wales brothers, it is probable that the New Zealand Labor Party will carefully commandeer the idea and set it going in this country, where it is badly needed. There is in most countries a standard for purchase of the necessaries of life. It would, for instance, be unpopular for a bread seller to declare that the value of his threepenny loaf was sixpence, or for a butcher to demand a shilling a pound for steak, this being his idea of the worth of a sixpenny article. Houses are necessities just as much as are steak and bread, and there never has been any reason why owners of houses should vary their de-. mauds from seven to thirty per cent, on the capital or suppositious value of their property. Restraining legislation is used both in Australia and in New Zealand to guide the average citizen in the right path, but there is'nothing to restrain a landlord from demanding .fifty per cent, on the alleged value of his property—if he thinks he has a chance of getting it. The payment of rent is the heaviest burden the poor man of New Zealand has to carry. But one is afraid that the united indignation of New Zealand houseowners at a mere five per cent, rental would effectually quell any New Zealand Parliament which dared to push a legislative knife between the joints of their armor.