CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 237, 25 February 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

HOME RULE FOR SCOTLAND. An organisation has been started in Scotland for the purpose of carrying on propaganda work in favor of national self-government for Scotland. , The organisation is called "The Scottish Home Rule, Council," and consists of representatives elected from the Scottish Liberal unofficial members of Parliament, the Scottish Liberal Association, the Scottish Women's Liberal Federation, and the Young Soots' Society. The Council lias secured ft list of a large number of ladies and gentlemen prepared to address meetings throughout Scotland.

SIR JOSEPH WARD AND IMPERIAL PREFERENCE.

Writing on January 11. a London correspondent states that to an English interviewer Sir Joseph Ward declared himself a strong believer in Imperial preference, hut added that he had never heon in favor of food taxes. To the Morning Post he said: "Any preference which Great Britain could give New Zealand wheat could not possibly have the effect of raising the price of wheat to the British consumer. We should not only have to sell our wheat in the English market against Russian and American wheat, which would not enjoy the 'benefit of the preferential duties, hut also in competition with Canadian wheat, which would receive preferential treatment equally with us, and the effect of that competition would he necessarily to keep prices at the lowest possible level. 1 '

CARE OP INFANTS. According to the Official Imperial Monitor, the (iernuui Government has taken a bold step m consequence of the serious discussion that has been in progress in recent months upon the subject of the diminution in natality and'physical degeneration. Since the decrease in the German birth-rate (or. more exactly, the decrease in the rate of increase) has not been checked by the various preventive measures now in force; and since the frequency of infantile diseases (especially gastritis and enteritis) is considerably less among breast-fed children, henceforward the ordinary feeding bottle is to be prohibited by law. Any person convicted of manufacturing, selling or importing them is liable to a fine of nearly £8 and even to imprisonment. The only legal form of feeding-bottle is the hygienic type with a Government guarantee.

PROPORTIONAL REPUI'SKXTATIOX

A petition demanding proportional representation and the resignation of the Massey Government is at present being circulated in Wellington. The petition originated in local labor quarters (says the Wellington Times), and its' preamble is as follows:—'-Whereas the Massey Government in power in New Zealand and legislating and governing in the inter-

ests of the laml monopolists and exploiters generally, represents barely one-third of the electorate, having polled, even with their four renegade Liberal supporters, little more than one vote out of every three cast at the general election of 1011, we. the undersigned electors of Xew Zealand, hereby call upon the said Government to introduce arid pass during this year's session of Parliament a measure for the election of members of the so-called House of Representatives by means of the system known as proportional representation, and then resign the position of power and profit, to which, whatever the law may say. they have no moral right, so that electors of New Zealand may have for the first time an opportunity of electing a true Hous.-; of Representatives in which each school of political thought shall be represented in direct proportion to its voting strength throughout the country." It is stated that the petition is being vigorously canvassed and freely signed.

WESLEY MAXUSCTUPT. In the archives of the Weslcyan Methodist hookroom, in City road, London, the Rev. Xchemiah Ournoek, editor of the new official edition of John Wesley's Journals, has discovered some important Wesley M.K.S.—above all. a shorthand diary covering the greater part of Wesley's last 10 years. Tt is contained in the last pages of a little vellum-covered account hook kept by Wesley, but; as the diary is in shorthand, nobody had previously known what it was. Mr. Curnock is the discoverer of the key to Wesley's cipher, having solved it from the diaries in the Colman collection, at Norwich. The diaries in this collection

end in 1741. and previously Wesley's story in this form remained untold until the period covered by a few stray leaves in Headingley College, from February 5, 1790, to his death. The new diary takes us back to the end of 17.52, covering a period during which the printed journal is imperfect. The book shows how, almost to the end, he kept his accounts, '■' exactly." There are many notable discoveries from City road, including letters to John Wesley, and large portions of Charles Wesley's Journal, in the form of letters to John. Mr. ('unlock believes there must be valuable Wesley letters, possibly more diaries also, in college libraries, family archives, and in America, Australia, Holland and Germany.

GERMANY'S NEW EOIIEKIN MINISTER. "Herr von Jagow has now definitely accepted the post of German Foreign Minister, which was vacated by Kider-len-Waechter," says the London Daily Citizen. "Who is the man, and why was lie chosen? To answer the first would be to answer the second. Herr von Jagow's career has been all spent in the diplomatic service. Tie belongs to the aristocracy, and when he was still at Bonn riniversity he chose as bis companions only members of the best families or those who could possibly help his ambition's; and all his subsequent career has been built on favoritism rather than on personal 'abilities. He is quite the opposite of the German Chancellor, and is not liked by him. He is also very different from his predecessor, KiderlenWaechter. Outwardly full of compliance! with orders that he did not like, he would use every back-door influence to thwart the design. He is a man without confidence' in himself, yet full of self-admiration. He likes comfort and quietness, and this perhaps accounts' for his love of peace. He is not an eagle, and will always do as his master bids him. His nomination undoubtedly marks the 'Kaiser's intention to interfere more actively in foreign policy—an intention which was always frustrated by the strong will of Kiderlen-Waechter. Von Jagow is a Maehiavelli by ambition and education, but without the Machiavellian brains. He will never send a gunboat to Agadir. as Kiderlen-Waechter did. He attempts his coups in silence and by stealthy intrigue with other Powers.