CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 195, 16 February 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A TRIBUTE. A tribute to New Zealand was paid by Or. Hamar Greenwood, M.P. who was one of the Empire' Parliamentary party who visited the overseas dominions last winter. Speaking at a recent meeting of the Overseas Club in London, ! he said he considered Nbw Zealand the finest example of an Anglo-Saxon community the world had ever seen. They not only adjourned their Parliament in order that the members might go to a lunch to the British Parliamentary representatives, but they kept the Speaker out of the chair for two hours. New Zealand was a sort of political barometer for the Anglo-Saxon world. What New Zealand did to-day the slower por*' 1 tions of the Umpire would do to-mor-row. Australia and New Zealand, in matters of defence, had gone further, spent more money, and hud under the nag more actual soldiers than any other part of the Empire, in proportion to .their population. The. tour of the Empire, which was the first of the kind, had had a splendid effect. As a colonial ho could perhaps say that they must reckon with the growth of the dominions, which must mean a transference of power from the hanks of the * Thames to the portions of the Empire overseas. The Imperial Conference must meet oftener than once in four years if it were to be effective.

I FOOL-PROOF- AEROPLANE. I Mr. Orville Wright, the survivor or the two brothers who first conquered the air, has been engaged during the last two or three years in attempts to construct a "fool-proof" aeroplane, lie claims to have invented a •'stabiliser" that will enable any unskilled person to manage an aeropane in the air with : safety. "Wo have invented an automatic stability device which will revolutionise flight," he said a few weeks ago. "It is more accurate than any aviator can be and will make flying fool-proof, or as neasly fool-proof as anything can be. I have flown many miles with it at times aid have 'never touched the controls. We are now simplifying .the device, and expect to be able to bring it to the point where it may be put in g-eneral use by early spring. We J hope to see the day when it will be I just as safe to board an aeroplane and . take a long trip, as it is at present to make the journey behind a locomotive. I The stability device will go a long way | towards making this dream a reality, I and we are enthusiastic about it. Our device ensures lateral, as well as fore and aft, stability. It depends, in part, on elcctrigity, and we shall soon have the mechanise so perfected that it wih not get out of order, and that means safety in flight." Mr. Wright says confidently that during the next three or four years the aeroplane will begin to be used for the carriage of mails and important parcels over vast distances. It will travel 120 to 200- miles an hour and will be entirely dependable. The famous American is entitled to speak with authority.

BLKKDIXt; A NATION. Why does the cuff and collar population, which eats and does not produce exceed the singlet and dungaree population that produces what it cats and feeds cuffs and collars too? Wonder if the fact that seven per cent of the population of New Zealand holds eightv per cent, of the land has anything to do with it? Do you think fhn't the imperceptible increase of taxation of the Squattocrats, the idiotic notion of stopping the land hunger of live hundred with a feed for one man, aids in the town congestion? One of the curiosities of New Zealand life is that a huge proportion of New Zealanders know nothing about New Zealand. Thous-

•ulri of town dwellers appear to believe that in some remarkable way towns support the people. An increase in a- city without a corresponding increase in the settlement of its backcountry and its products is simply Weeding the nation to death.—Auckland Observer. TOWN POPULATION.

In 1881 less than 40 per cent, of the population of New Zealand resided hi the boroughs. At the last census, in 11)11, the percentage was 50.14. Why? ft is not anything to do with the Y.M.C.A., as some speakers at the Convention seemed almost to imagine. It is not due to any appreciable extent to the alleged "attractiveness of the centres." It is not from choice that t!io bulk of the people live together in more or less congested cities, paying high rents and other high prices for their living, and coming against each other for city employment. It is because the land in the country is fenced off against them. If the Y.M.C.A. or >v other agency seriously desires to help in arresting the drift to the cities, it must join the democratic forces in fighting squattocracy and land monopoly.—New Zealand Times. OM SUCCESS.

"The capacity a man has for working when work becomes distasteful," was described by Sir Frederick Treves, the colebratcd surgeon, as the essential quality for success in life. Some further aphorisms from his speech are these: "Jf you have a fault and realise it. you have, done nearly half the work to remove it. "You are not wailing for good fortune; good fortune is waiting for you." "If you want to do well, keep working, keep clean—bodily.- mentally, and |m»rally—and keep straight." "I have no great belief either in talent or genius. ... So far as the hard work of life is concerned I have not witnessed in those around mc any striking proof of its great value." If they were going to be poets, dramatists, inventors, or artists, cleverness, brilliancy and genius might possibly be of service, but s"o far as the. was compelled to say he had not witnessed in those around him any striking proof of its great utility. '