CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 173, 21 January 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

.\llt. ALLEN'S EXCUSES. Railway revenue, said the Hon. James Allen to a reporter, when giving for publication particulars of the finances for the last three (piarters, had been somewhat disappointing, "partly owing to the smallpox epidemic and partly owing to the strike." This excuse was to be anticipated (says the Wellington Times) and we do not doubt that Ministers will keep the smallpox and the strike on hand for many months to come as a permanent and prominent part of their sfock-in-tra.lc whenever thev are confronted with the results of' their own mismanagement. We must, however, respectfully but firmly protest. We must point out that flic financial position of tii,! railway undertaking lias been steadily going to the bad ever .since the Government look ollke, and that; long before the outbreak of smallpox or the industrial upheaval (which the Government allowed to hist for something- like two and a-ha!i' months) we bad occasion to comment upon the alarming rale at which the expansion of expenditure was overleaping that of revenue. Of course the two unfortunate occurrences mentioned by the Minister for l-'inance must have had a depressing effect upon the railway income, but what about, the expenditure? The rate of expenditure should be kept down if the Government has the wonderful capacity for economy which was mentioned in it's ■' home-made testimonials when it was applying lo the electors for employment. .Before the smallpox epidemic and the strike, however, we can recall that .Ministerial defences and explanations had to be produced concerning the railway figures. At one time, it may be remembered, the excuse was that' there were iv> 1 ..:iongli Eastors in the year. .- "•

ATTUACTINC IMMIGRANTS. Canada's great immigration polity lias been the envy of the work!. Britain's colonies in the southern hemisphere followed in Canada's footsteps—though in a modified degree—New Zealand being the last to fall into line. In the past New Zealand has looked only to the United Kingdom for additions to her population. Victoria is going one better, and it is the intention of the Government there to endeavor to interest the inhabitants of Northern Europe in the 'attractions of Victoria for immigrants I of the agricultural class, and in the facilities provided to land seekers for securing blocks of land. Arrangements are being made for agents of the Victorian Government to travel in Denmark, Norway and Holland, and bring •the advantages of Victoria under the notice of the people. The liovermnent intends to prepare special blocks of land for the new arrivals. We are apt to pride ourselves on our immigration policy, but it must be admitted that in the matter of enterprise New Zealand lags behind Australia. ; AN IDEAL HOME. ', The doctor who complained so hitter- | ly to a Sydney interviewer the other .day of Ms life, among the "lazy, good-for-nothing natives" of the I'nion or •Tokelau group, in the Central Pacific, anight have found an ideal home on the -mountain-island of Malaila, in the Solomons. The dusky inhabitants of this island, according to a medical missionary who ha* just returned to Sydney, iseem to toil as hard as any pakeha workman. The traditional dolce far niento of the Pacific is unknown at Malaita. Happily for themselves, the natives have not enough edeoanuts to enable (hem to sleep in the sun while living on the proceeds of the copra collected from them by the white trader. They all have to work, and work hard, in their gardens, for a bare living. In large parts of the island they only have enough food to enable them to eat once a day. "It is significant," says a returned missionary, "that there are only three fat men that !I know on the island. The nativcsySiro a wiry, virile race, and the nccessiCyfor bard work has doubtless been the salvation- of the, race in the past, and will, • I believe, probably preserve them, as a race, for many years to come if they are not exterminated by excessive remiiting for plantations." " Hut the Malaitians have an unpleasant habit of eating stray 'white men, and perhaps the pessimistic doctor from the Union Group was better .oir, after all, among the amiable good-for-nothing's of Tokelau than he would have been among the primitive people who still retain their taste for what the : Maoris call "long pig."