CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 60, 1 September 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

NATIVE RACES. AYe have lately boon flssnred that there, is a small hut noticeable increase in the Maori population, and this causes the student of native race statistics and the reasons for the. usual decline in contact with the white man, to wonder whether there is a chance of arresting the rot. It is curious that enslaved

- races do not die out, and that, in their gradual evolution from savaged-om to some sort of civilisation they are more or less immune from the physical disasters that have overtaken the •Maoris, the Fijians, the Australian black fellows, and the Red Indians. The . result of ''civilisation" of native races is 1 generally entirely, bad from a physical standpoint, but it is apparent that if the stronger the rot, it is possible to build up a new race from the remnant. The Australian blackfellow, where he has rubbed shoulders with civilisation, has shown a disposition to die hastily, and in saving the remnant it seems to be recognised that to permit him in some regards to live his natural life is his only hope of physical salvation., So the authorities are giving him groat reserves in the nortih of Queensland. We read that some ,Westralian blacks are atill cannibalistic. A cannibal nice survives cannibalism, but cannot survive civilisation without the lose of the greater proportion. Canadian "Red Indians" died in large numbers, as a result of contact with- the whites, the cessation of their habitual existence, the lack of need for feats of endurance and the loss of their hunting. But strangely enough, the decline has (according to report) been arrested. The i report, however, gives no real indication of the' physical fitness of this remnant of ail extraordinarily interesting people. In short, the native races mentioned are likely to be saved by becoming immune "from the diseases that have been killing them and by losing the characteristics they formerly possessed. If the native races could be made to live the life of the white man, with the same work, the same interests, and the same restrictions, they would survive, but would inevitably lose their characteristics and became absorbed in the prevailing type. We do not believe that the Red Indians, as a distinct people, have any more chance of surviving than had the buffalo, or that other native races in contact with the white man have the least hope of retaining the individual or national characteristics of their forefathers. It is to be Acted that 'wherever increases of na,tive races are tabulated a, large proportion are of mixed blood, and hence even the increases help in the disappearance of types.

TRUSTING .HUMANITY. ' The man who has the effrontery to lie brazenly enough may run a golden path —for a while. He may say that lie is the son of the Earl of Dewberry, or the nephow of Admiral Forctop, or the brother of General Scabbard, and tin; doors of society and the hotels lly open. Of caurse, lie gets into gaol ultimately, but the extraordinary thing.is the people lie comes in contact with before the constable slips in and so easily gulled. A young gentleman in Auckland recently showed the tradesmen there that he must be a man of means because he wore stylish clothes. He had no trouble. He went from hotel to hotel, and beardinghouse to boardinghouse without paying. He lived in fine style, hired motor-cars, and did no work. All this time he hadn't the price of a daily newspaper. The point for the public is that it has to make up for the losses tradesmen sustain who welcome penniless people with glib tongues, clothe and feed them, give them motorcars, and treat them politely, All of us know how very easy it is for the decently dressed spieler to cash a cheque that returns to the victim marked "no account." While a newcomer to a town who has paid his way quite honestly all his life is carefully discussed liv the tradesmen—as. of course, he should be--as to whether lie is a good or a bad "mark." the flash person with the oily torigne and the bold method rarely has any trouble in obtaining all he wants gratis for a short time. It is a curious consistency of the total inability of the average man to vend his fellow man.

THE FUTURE OF *THE PACIFIC'. In the Century for June, Admiral Mahan writes on the Panama Canal and sea power in the Pacific. He thus summarsises his main contentions: —"Sea power, like other elements of national strength, depends ultimately upon population; upon its numbers and its characteristics. The great effect of the Panama Canal will be the indefinite strengthening of Anglo-Saxon institutions upon the north-east shores of the Pacific, from Alaska to Mexico, by increase of inhabitants and consequent increase of shipping and commerce; to which will contribute that portion of present and future local production which will find cheaper access to the Atlantic by the Oanal than by the existing transcontinental or Great Lakes routes. The result will be to Europeanise these great districts, in the broad sense which recognises the European derivation of American populations. The Western Pacific will remain Asiatic, as it should." The line of demarcation between the Asiatic and the European elements in the Pacific will, he holds, be that joining Pacific America with Australia, and will pass through Hawaii and Samoa: "The interests herein of Great Britain and of £he United States are preponderant and coincident. By force of past | history and present possessions the final decision of this momentous question depends chiefly upon them. Meantime, and because of this, the American navy' should be second to none but the British." He only asks, for the United States, influence, not supremacy in the Pacific. Mr. Malum expects the opening of the Canal will have a marked yffect on the population of the Pacific seaboard:—"That the Panama Canal can effect the rapid peopling of the American Pacific coasts is as evident as it is to be desired. That a ship-load of immigrants can be carried through relatively quiet seas direct to "the Pacific ports, without the tiresome and expensive transcontinental journey by rail will be an inestimable contribution toward overcoming the problem of distribution and that of labor. It will disperse also the threatening question of Asiatic immigration to tiie northern Pacific coasts by tilling up the ground—the only perfectly sound provision for the futu'-e.'' He. is mightily impressed with the fact that the first Labor Minister of Australia has adopted Lord Kitchener's scheme of defence, and has set about to provide an efficient military organisation. NEW PLYMOUTH AND ITS PROSPECTS. We would coin mend those who take a pessimistic view of New Plymouth and its prospects to peruse the article we reprint in another column of this issue from the New Zealand Shipping and Commerce Annual Review. The article deals in turn with the district served by the port, the coastal feeders, the port's central position, the industries and prospective industries of the district, and winds up by stating: •'Takingonly well established facts like the dairy industry into consideration, there is every reason for the greatest confidence in the future of the port of New Plymouth. The improvement scheme is already so far advanced as to remove any possible doubt that within about two years the largest steamers trading to New Zealand will be able to berth comfortably at the wharf, and there is room also for whatever expansion the future in the distance may make necessary. The existing industries of the district will provide cargoes for ocean liners at frequent intervals, while the

facilities of ingress and egress arc so j great that the port must command the trade of an enormous extent of rich country. When to these considerations are added the prospects of the petroleum and iron industries it is not taking too optimistic a view to predict that in ■ ii few years New Plymouth will become 1 one of the ino.*t important ports of New Zealand." All this has, of course, lieen said before, in a different way. perhaps, liv the local press and others, but the opinions of a journal devoted purely to the interests of commerce and shipping of the Dominion, and, consequently, taking a detached view of things, must necessarily 'be invested with more value and importance. We commend the article to our readers, and feel sure that their faith in the future of this fortunately endowed district will in no way be diminished when they have done so.