CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 2, 3 June 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

JAPAN'S WOUNDED HONOR. Discussing the Japanese - American trouble, the London Daily Mail, in a leading article, says:—"lt seems unlikely that Japan will force a rupture with so potent an adversary, but the Webb law treats Japanese as if they were only semi-barbarians. The aspersion that they are Asiatic undesirables arouses them to fury, and in anger they, may drive the Government to perilous lengths. The gravity _of the situation lias a close personal interest to ourselves. It would be distressing to find our American kinsmen in serious conflict with our Japanese allies upon an issue in which the Americans would command the sympathies of Western Canada. It may be taken for granted that Sir Edward Grey will use all legitimate British influence to bring about an understanding." PANAMA EARTHSLIDES. Advices from Panama are to the effect that the earthslides which delayed the work_of completing the Culebra cut last year are again causing anxiety to the engineers. According to the cables, huge masses of earth came down last week, covering the steam shovels and the railway tracks laid for carrying away the material, all work on the section of the canal being rendered idle. This is not the first time that such earthslides have occurred in the Culebra cut. Extensive damage was caused by one of these disturbances during the middle of last January, and there has scarcely been time left to have this debris cleared away. "If there is any foundation for the reports from Colon, the great Panama Canal, on which the United States has already spent many millions of dollars, stands a chance of being wiped out by an underlying slumbering volcano," said over a year ago tthe New York correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. "Great excitement prevails among the workmen on the canal owing to the clouds of steam and blue smoke arising from the> ground ! in many of the deep cuts, principally the famous Culebra Cut, and the heat in many cases is so intense that it quickty chars 1 wood' and demolishes paper. The geologist insists that the phenomena are caused by the oxidation of pyrites, but despite official denials the rumor about a volcano persists, and much hindrance has already been caused by the refusal of the men to use dynamite in the drill holes, for fear of a premature explosion."

THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM. "I'll vote for your party, whatever it is, if you will get me a good girl for my housework." This remark made to an election canvasser in Sydney by a worried housewife expressed her feelings in relation to what a great many of her sisters regard as the greatest of national difficulties—the domestic help problem. Girl immigrants who go to Australia to enter domestic service need to have no fears about the labor market, as far as they are concerned. A batch of domestic help was amongst the immigrants who reached Melbourne in the steamer Port Macquarie last week. "A hundred housekeepers put in an "early door" appearance in the hope that they might persuade the officials at the Immigration Bureau to allot them one of the eagerly awaited helps; They drove to the bureau in motor cars, in taxi-cabs, in harddriven horse cabs, in all sorts of vehicles. Expectant mistresses, some impatient, others unrestrainedly excited, endeavored to reach the bevy of girls in charge of the Departmental matron, without regard to the notices posted outside the offices to the effect that they must produce vouchers showing that they had been officially selected from amongst the numerous applicants for girls. But the entrance was barred, and only the fortunate few, equipped with the offiical talisman, were admitted to the presence of the much-sought-after women. Those who were barred out appealed in their most coaxing manner to the delighted lift boy for his assistance to "just see the girls." When the request was refused some of the disappointed ones waited for a while and endeavored to induce girls who had already accepted engagements to change their minds for the considerations of an extra half-crown a week. At times the footway became blocked with arguing feminity. Angry disputes between successful and disappointed mistresses were frequent. It was a lively time.