CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 314, 30 May 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

■ A WORTHY CITIZEN. A meeting of citizens is to be held this morning for the purpose of arranging a public send-off to Mr. C. Carter, the chairman of directors of the Taranaki Petroleum Company. We hope there will be a krge and representative attendance, for there is no man in the community that more richly deserves public recognition and honoring than Mr. Carter. To his lot has fallen a tremendous amount of work in connection with the oil industry, just how much and how trying no one outside those intimately associated could be expected to recognise or appreciate. His private interests, since he has occupied the chairmanship of the company, have been sacrificed to the interests of the industry, the promotion of which has been his sole aim. His hand it has been that has guided the company in the difficult and delicate negotiations that have resulted so successfully to all concerned. Having shown, such capacity and ability in the conduct of the company's affairs since lie has been at the helm, and having gained so completely the confidence of everybody, it is not" surprising that his fellow, directors were "unanimous in the wish that he should go Home and complete The sale. The company's interests, there is no room for doubt, will be absolutely safe in his hands. Apart from his connection with the oil industry and the distinguished part he has taken therewith, Mr. Carter has shown commendable public spirit in many other directions, being ever willing and anxious to help every movement making for the advancement of the town. As a county councillor, too, he has rendered invaluable service to country ratepayers. He has proved himself'a splendid type of citizen in every respect, scttine a shining example to others less handicapped for time than he has been, and therefore, wo say it is only fitting that the public for whom he has done so much—and in the doing not seek-in" any praise or reward, but just desiring to help m pushing the place and its interests ahead because he felt it his duty to do go-should seize this opportunity of showing their appreciation and eratitude.

TOO MANY LAWYERS? Dr A. Izard, a Wellington medical man will win a seat in Parliament-if he can He'thinks there are too many lawyers in Parliament, and that there'should be at least one medical man. There is one medical man and a very distinguished one-Dr. Collins, M.L.C. Dr. Izard's father was a lawyer, and Dr. Izard helped his brother Charles, also a lawyer to get into Parliament. Personally we' are not quite sure whether there should be fewer lawyers in Parliament, and anyhow, neither Dr. Izard nor the Press can turn them out. If the people want lawyers m Parliament they must have them The most brilliant men in the British Parliament, including the Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are lawyers. Political capacity has nothing to do with a man's avocation, but an avocation which requires mental gift, and close application may easily supply the men best able to undertake political work. The lawyer does not pre sent himself to the electors as a lawyer but as a man who offers to work for them m Parhament. His training gives him a clearer view than most other men m Par lament. A lawyer is less likely to confuse our already mixed law than he ,n«pert person; he is much more likely to know men and things, and he probably has a better grasp of political history and political requirements than many of Ins fellow Parliamentarians He is not necessarily a rogue because he is a lawyer, and he can't help the fact that tneie is a large proportion of his brethren of the wig in' the House. ment, that ,s the people's fault. If the awyers now in Parliament are not do ng their work, ,t is still the people's fault for not turning them out. We should refuse to be alarmed if all the lawyer" J Jew Zealand announced their intention of standing for Parliament. Between them and the Parliament there are the

WATER.POWER IX MEXICO. Mexico City, where a change of Government is now taking place, is Applied. Si. i P T' , b - y means of a ver .V remarkable hydraulic system. The city lies on

a plateau, which terminates in an abrupt incline, leading at one point into a deep gorge. Water is not plentiful, because the rainfall is scanty, but the engineers employed by the Mexican Government thought that the lack of volume could be balanced by the enormous pressure which could be secured. They arranged that a chain of rivulets and ponds should discharge water through steel pipes into a dam constructed in a valley, and by carefully husbanding all the available supply managed to provide a continuous flow from the dam into three large steel pipes which pass through a tunnel to the gorge a thousand feet below. There the water is transferred to smaller pipes, and finally is directed into eight great turbines, which are harnessed to generators.' When the water has done its work it passes on in the form of a purling brook of quite insignificant size, but the pressure secured by the big fall is so great that the plant produces about 50,000 horse-power. The electricity is carried by wires to the city and various parts of the surrounding district, and it operates the tramway system, provides light in the streets and buildings, and drives the machinery in hundreds of factories and industrial concerns. Recently a number of Americans interested in the development of water-power visited the installation at the Mexican capital, and returned greatly impressed with the wonderful results that have been secured by the utilisation of apparently negligible natural forces.