CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 8, 4 July 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

SELLING BEAUTY. Since the days of ancient Rome fair women (and women who were not fair) have believed that they could buy beauty in a bottle. It is a woman's duty to be beautiful, and certainly her desire, and so if she has money she will cheerfully pay las or £1 Is for a pot of scented lard or sixpennyworth of fragrant iamb-fat. The caljiegram showing that a famous "beauty specialist" who did wonderfully good buisness in Xew Zealand and Australia, has in London sued an assistant, whom she paid a few shillings a week, for leaving her, lets some light on the subject of beauty profits. It is shown that with a system of clever advertising the lady mentioned earned a yearly income greatly in excess of that enjoyed by a Cabinet Minister. The peach-bloom complexion which the boml society woman so admires in the peasant girl is bought for a guinea a bottle. The fees of beauty specialists who understand the weaknesses of their sisters are heavier than the fees of a great physician or a renowned K.O. The way of the beauty specialist is very plain. It doesn't matter what she sell's or how much she charges for it as long as she can induce people to believe that it will make them lovely for ever. Just as many women will cheerfully pay three or four guineas for half-a-crown's worth of artificial (lowers hung on a wire, frame—because hats must be fashionable —so will many regard threepennyworth of petroleum jelly masquerading under a title invented by an ad : vertisement writer as a sure way to obtain n brilliant complexion. One mustn't blame the specialists for taking advantage of the credulity of human nature. The field is enormous, the prizes gorgeous, and the methods simple beyond belief. At least one celebrated specialist who took thousands of pounds out of Xew Zealand for halfpennyworths of odds and ends /sold for guineas and half-guineas), should have pensioned her advertisement writer, for he was the reason of . her success. The beauty chase has iis pathetic side. It is intensely disturbing, for instance, for a society queen to find that at 50 she no longer appears to be eighteen. Hence the fight for the retention of her charms. Hence also the threepennyworths of grease and the enormous fortunes of the specialists. Xature for her part goes on making beauty and marring it without taking the least notice of these threepennyworths of grease Unit- a lady charges her friend five guineas for recommending and one guinea for selling. The cablegram discloses the fact that, one lady who desired beauty paid £l5O a month for it. She. it is also gathered, is not living in a mental hospital.

THE SLY CELESTIAL Verv strenuous protests are being made in Western Australia against the. action of the Commonwealth Government in exempting certain Chinese from the operations of the law prohibiting the admission of aliens. Some ago it was suspected that, the law was being administered hixlyMßW.Fremantlo and that in Aus-

Customs officers were' being bribed to allow Chinese to land and hide tneinselvcs among the agencies of a powerful organisation, which carries on a traffic in immigration of aliens. Investigation showed that four Chinese were at large, presumably the result of bribes given to two Customs officers. The four Chinese turned King's evidence, making statements which incriminated their confederates, and the two Customs officers were placed on trial. The aliens gave evidence against them, but the case l>roke down and the two Europeans were acquitted. The Customs Department, however, was satisfied that an extensive scheme of corruption had been unearthed, and the two, men against whom the allegations had been made were dismissed. Then the Department decided that the informers should receive some reward, although the charges of conspiracy had failed, and they were granted exemption from the exclusion regulations for twelve months on the understanding that their case would do reconsidered at the end of that period. The friends of the men who have been dismissed have been criticising the Department very strongly. They urge that the exemption granted to the Chinese is simply the price of perjury, these men having conspired to save themselves and injure the Customs officers. Sensational stories have been set on foot to the effect that these Chinese are members of a murderous gang which stick at nothing in order to continue the slave trade between Western Australia and -China, and dreadful deeds in Fremantle and Perth are predicted. The authorities, however, have shown no alarm. They are confident that they have reached the root of tfte trouble, and they have no fear of a Chinese Camorra establishing itself in the Commonwealth.

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS.

It is possible that Mr. Millar might be able to learn something of Japan, where according to Engineering, the Government ownership of railroads has been a complete success. "It is admitted by those who are competent to judge that Ja]>an has obtained as much as, if not more than, any other country for the money she has expended on her railways, 90 per cent, of which are now owned by the State." When railways were inaugurated in Japan, in 1872, they were undertaken directly by the Government, and this was continued for some years, when a great railway boom took place, and limited liability companies were formed for carrying out the extended plans which were made. The Government never, however, allowed the railways to drift entirely into the hands of private companies, as there was a strong feeling that such important national concerns should be worked in the interests of the nation, and there appears always to have been a reservation on the part of the Govemmest in the rights granted to private companies, which made the purchase of the railways by the State in 190? a less difficult question to deal with in Japan than it has been in other countries. The State seems to have made a good bargain, and the nurchase was carried out on terms which were advantageous to the nation and fair to the sellers, although nothing was paid either for watered stock or for promoters' profits. The owners were given 5 per cent, bonds for their interests, but these bonds may be retired, and 4 per cent, bonds substituted therefor. After the nationalisation the receipts increased by leaps and bounds, as the result of the increase in the running mileage, the total receipts for the year immediately following the nationalisation have reached 80,000,000 yen (about £B/100,000). The business expenses of the Government railway also increased greatly, amounting, as they did, to over 40,000,-' 000 yen, the increase being chiefly due to the more complete arrangements for management which have been made.