CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 5, 6 June 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

"A, WORKING MAN'S PARADISE." j An' enquirer in an English paper recently expressed a wish to know whether j New Zealand deserved to be spoken of as "a working man's paradise." In the first of two replies received from New Zealand, the writer says that though New Zealand is not exactly a working man's paradise, yet so far as his experience goes he does not think the country can be bettered as regards either wages or work. The writer, a Bristol man, says that at Home he held the position of a poorly-paid bank clerk. As an emigrant he first went to Canada, but not being pleased with the conditions there, he removed to Australia, whence, in a little while, he migrated to New Zealand; and of this he says, "I have never regretted it." Further on he adds that "the people of New Zealand are kind and the climate is excellent," and he says: "I had never done any hard work in England, a pen being the only tool I had handled, but I have been given a chance here, and I can do a day's work with any man. I have never been out of work. lam more healthy and independent than I ever was. There is work ior every man who will work, but I regret to say there are many who will not work. These are the men we do not want. The man who could not make a living here must be a very helpless creature, as I am absolutely certain that the conditions for the working man cannot be beaten the world over." Evidently this man, who accurately sums up the position, is made.of different material from some of those who have lately been whining in the English press about "compulsory military service" and other disadvantages of life in this favored land.

A NEW ENGINE. I It is reported by the Kawhia paper that 'a resident of Waiharakeke has been successful in producing an engine which promises to be of considerable importance in the mechanical world. Last month he received information that his invention, which has been successfully patented, lias met so much favor that an offer of £SOOO has been made for his rights, but was refused. Subject ' to the engine standing climatic tests, it is understood that the fortunate inventor is to receive £20,000 for his interests. THE POET LAUREATE. Mr. Alfred Austin, the Poet Laureate, whose death was chronicled on Wednesday, was born at Headingley, Leeds, on May 30, 1835. He was the second son of Mr. .Tuseph Austin, a merchant and magistrate of the borough of Leeds, and Mary Locke, sister of Mr. Joseph Locke, C.E. and M.P! for Honiton. In 1805 he married Hester, daughter of Mr. T. Homeu-Mulock, of Bellair, King's County, Ireland. He was educated at Stonyhurst and Oscott, and graduated at London University in 1833. He was called to the Bar in 1857. and practised for three years, but be had no intention of remaining at the Bar, and on the death of bis fatl ler in 18(11 he went to travel in Italy. In that year his first acknowledged volume of verse appeared, although in 1804 be. had published anonymously a poem entitled "Randolph; a tale of Polish Grief." Mr.. Austin was appointed Poet Laureate in 1S!)(). For manv years he was a leader-writer on the Standard; he edited the National Review and wrote for the Quarterly Review. is not generally known that he was special correspondent, for the Standard during the Franco-German war. JAPAN AND AMERICA. •General Nelson Miles, the American officer who is reported to have said that the Japanese are "greatly over-rated as fighting men." won his laurels in the Civil War fifty years ago. and possibly has not kept fully abreast of later developments in the armed strength of the, nations (writes the Lvttelton Times). His apparent confidence in the position of his own country certainly is not shared by the ma jority of the American military authorities. If Japan went to war with the United States over the California]] quarrel or any other matter the white nation probably would win in

the end by Sheer weight of money, the financial resources of the republic being! practically limitless, while Japan feels' the pinch of poverty at every turn. But! the price of victory would be enormous, and in the early stages of the struggle the Japanese might be expected to have an almost unbroken series of successes. The Japanese fleet could reach the west coast of America weeks before the American fleet, which is largely stationed in the Atlantic, appeared at the danger point in sufficient force to secure a victory, and in the meantime the Phillippines and Hawaii would have been occupied by Japanese armies. The realisation of the danger is inducing the Americans to spend millions of dollars in fortifying the harbors of their Pacific possessions. The Japanese' would not be likely to invade California, since they could not hope to annex territory there, but if they did land an army corps for tile purpose of bringing pressure to bear upon Washington the Americans would have to meet them with a skeleton force of regulars whose organisation is notori.ously ineffective, and a mass of practically untrained militia. Happily there is no real probability of a JapaneseAmerican war, at any rate while the Anglo-Japanese alliance" endures. The supremacy of the Pacific is an issue of the future, not of to-day.

A BIG CLOTH ORDER. A little over 307 miles of cloth are to be delivered this week to the defence authorities of the Commonwealth. The estimated cost of the material is £125,? 000, and the. stuff, which has been manufactured in Australia, is to be turned into uniforms. , Three years ago sSfch an order could not have been filled in Australia, but the clothing industry Has made much progress, mainly owing to the stimulus given by Defence orders, that to-day very large contracts can be taken up by the manufacturers at short notice.