CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 270, 15 April 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

ENCOURAGING THE TERRITORIALS. Oil Monday there was inaugurated in Taranaki a competition that cannot but assist the Territorial movement ill the district. We refer to the rille tournament, which was held at the Waiwahaiho range, in which cadets, Territorials, and tha general training section of the. No. 8 group participated. That the innovation was a popular one, particularly among the cadets, was evidenced by the fact that there were HOC competitors, 74 of whom were cadets and four G.T.S., tho latter being men who are not attached to any particular company. The entry of Territorials was rather disappointing, only 28 putting in an appearance. This small muster is said to be due to the fact that many of the Territorials were afraid that being under service conditions there would be too much discipline observsd and the shoot! would -be more in the nature of a parade, (icrtainlv discipline is necessary, and nowhere more so than when young and inexperienced sliots are handling the rille, lint it was certainly not allowed to oh-' truth! itself an Monday. The nicciiujr was orderly and well managed, and those present appeared to spend a very pleasant time. Indeed, as Captain Stevens remarked at the prize giving, "if the ,nieeting did nothing else it engeii'.l--cred a feeling of good comradeship and helped (.0 show Territorials and cadets alike that their instructors were not necessarily hard-hearted monsters, who lived to bully tlieni on parade and run them in if they did not attend, but were anxious and willing in every way to make military training pleasant and practical."

THE LICENSED TRADE. It has become evident that the'wiiole question of the licensed trade calls i'ur the attention of Parliament. The lot of the hotelkeeper is far from being a b"d or roses. He is largely at the mercy ot the brewing monopoly who own mane licensed houses and squeeze out of those who wish to take leases of hotel properties enormous sums for goodwill, and sometimes extortionate rent-. Tins would not be. possible but I'ur the monoply created by the State by the limitation of the number of licensed houses. The hotel-keeper has a hard row to hoe, ind though his profits may at times looklarge 011 paper, it is in the majority of cases the brewing monopoly, ami not the hotel-keeper, who reap the harvest. -It, is the duty of Parliament to protect Iwth the hotelkeeper and the public .fromthe greed of that monopoly, end during the coming session it is'hoped that something in this direction will be accomplished.—Wellington Dominion.

WHAT WE NEED. What the Xortli Island needs is such development works—roads ami railwavs —as will make a profitable investment of the money spent upon them. We have no Northern railway system which does not pay and everywhere railways help roading by carrying metal and by reducing haulage to market. Xew Zealand is able, in these days of cheap money, to borrow all that is required to develop the country, increase produce and reduce, waste. A national public' works system, adequate for the times and applicable to Hie undeveloped Xorth

Island, is the. need of the da>, hhl m o expect Mr, ilassev to prove us to this emergency as lie has proved to other great occasions.—Auckland llcrald.

A BISHOP'S ADVICE. The belief that life was one wild rush and crush and that one must trample others down or submit to be trampled 011 was what was the matter with the social system of to-day, said Bishop Green, of Ballarat (Victoria), last week. The homes had to cure it. In every household there was a weaker <>|< ment. The feuds and political diffci\ mrs we are troubled with came from an endeavor to grab everything for one's own side. The mothers should not let their children be started with the great falsehood of the "almighty dollar" as the basis of their lives. They should teach their children that to do good to one human soul, merely to strike one blow at ignorance and vice, was worth all the gold that ever went from Ballarat. They should teach girls that the most wicked, immoral and ruinous thing a woman could ever do was to marry for the sake of money.

SELF-MADE MEN. New Zealand i 3 not the only country that has confided its political destinies to self-made men. The list of prominent Australian politicians contains the names of many men who began life in humble station. The present Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, the Hon. Joseph Cook, commenced work as a miner. The ex-Prime Minister, Mr. Fislier, worked as a boy in the coal mines in Scotland. The Hon. W. A. Hqlman, the Premier of New South Wales, who is now only in early middle life and a barrister, served his apprenticeship in a furniture factory in London. Tho Hon. J. Scaddair, the Premier of Western Australia, was a few years ago a locomotive engine driver. The late Sir Henry Parkes, a famous Premier of New South Wales, who had so much to do with the bringing about of federation, began in England as a farm laborer. In Australia, as in New Zealand, all temperate, industrious wage-earners feel that the best positions and highest honors in the State arc open to them.