CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 284, 4 May 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

HOARDED WEALTH. Attention is periodically directed to tho hoarded gold in India. The latest article ■on the subject is by Mr. Lovat Eraser in the Daily Mail. "From time immemorial," he rerarka, "India haa absorbed gold as a sponge ajbacyrbs water." In the last twelve • years sovereigns and bullion to the value ot £136,000,000 have gone into India, ana very little has come out. Tho most popular estimate puts tho hoarded wealth of India at £300,000,000, but some credible estimates are far higher. Mr. Eraser points out that hoarding 1 does not necessarily mean concealing, though a great deal of currency is so kept. For instance, a Brahmin in Eastern Bengal hoards notes in his roof, drying them once a week in the sun. A large proportion of India's hoard consists of ornaments. Well-to-do agriculturists who used to wear strings o'f rupees round their necks, now wear strings of sovereigns. Women wear a great deal of the hoarded wealth of the country. By Hindu law a man cannot alienate any portion of his property, either by will ot deed of gift, to his wife or any of the women of his family. The law, however, precludes male heirs from claiming jewellery or ornaments given to women, and men take advantage of this second law to get round the first. In a middle-class family, by the time a girl is twelve, fifty or a hundred sovereigns will have been collected for her dowry and converted into ornaments. The girl imust cease to wear them when her husband dies, but she sells them and live 3 on the proceeds. Prospective bankrupts find this law convenient. A merchant gave to his wife jewellery and ornaments to the value of £600,000 before he handed over his available assets to the "Receiver, and it was found that the creditors could not recover a penny of this "estate." But the main reason why Indians hoard is the innate feeling of insecurity, a legacy from the days when the country was subjected to invasions and internal wars. In view of this, and the fa, t that banking facilities are not nuixrous, it is not surprising that Indians keep much of their wealth from circulating.

GIRDS OF THE FUTURE. A freaky place this' world will be in some 3000 years, if the predictions of scientists come near to being fulfilled. Statistics show that girls we putting on weight and growing taller with a rapidity which has never been observed before. Therefore, according to all indications, it seems that in the distant future the female will be much taller than the male. A careful investigatioik by the British Association shows that tho most striking development of girls takes place between the eleventh and thirteenth year. Before that period the boys and girls are about equal. According to Dr. Clement Lucas, the big toe has undergone such an extraordinary development that we are in danger of becoming a one-toed race, while another eminent specialist fears that we shall be a mad one in 300 years or so, though it is possiblo that the mad will give way in time to a race of geniuses—a state of affairs which in some people's minds would be as bud as the preceding mad era. Amid so many gloomy predictions it is s relief to find that there is a good time coming, at least for husbands and fathers in the near future, with regard to their women folk. A modern French prophet declares that the women of tomorrow will wear no jewellery, and will not bother their heads about fashions. They will be more elegant than they are nowadays, but will have renounced the arts and graces which they owe to mon and to the favours of fate. The woman of to-morrow will be a porfect woman, instead of an incomplete man. Unfortunately lie offers no explanation as to how this marvellous change will be brought about.

COST OF WAR. The cost of tlm war in Tripoli is still a vexed question in the Italian Parliament. The Government has submitted a statement showing that the expenditure on naval and military operations up to the end of last year amounted to slightly more than £50.000,(100, ' but these figures are not accepted by financial critics and the attempts of th* Ministers to defend them do not appeal to have been particularly successful. Admittedly many items that should have oeen charged to the war account have been omitted. General Marasszi, an asMinister of War, says that the amount spent by the Government was not less than £80,000,000. exclusive of the civil expenditure of the captured province, which this year will require a grant of between £5,000,000 and £0,000,000. The General states, moreover, that the military preparations were very inadequate, that an enormous waste of ammunition and material occurred, and that the civil and military authorities were more often than not at sixes and sevens. Whatever may be the truth of these matters, it is fairly clear that Italy has found Tripoli a very expensive acquisition. The country will not begin to be profitable until scores of millions of pounds have been spent upon its <>- velopment by means of railways, roads and irrigation works.

TRADE WITH HULL. In an article dealing with the opening up a trade between New Zealand anil Hull, the Eastern Morning News says: ••- "This point has to be considered, that a great deal—by far the larger part—of the trade of New Zealand with this country has a special interest for the people of the north, and that to bring to London produce that is needed north of the Hmnber is to incur a needless expense. The Port of Hull as a collecting and distributing centre is in touch wi'h a population of 11,280,000. Why should London be used as the port of supply for this, population, when our own port is so much more easily accessible'; it may not suit the Port' of London that Hull should offer better facilities to New Zealand trade than it can bring forward, but that is not our affair. We have to make the best of our ehancus, and, as the High Commissioner of New Zen laud was swift to recognise, we can do New Zealand an excellent turn. VVY are glad that the investigations of MiMackenzie have taken the turn they have, ft means much to tlm l'»rt of Hull that, with April, there is to be set up between New Zealand and Hull n' regular service of steamers. At present, however, the vessels will make a call at London, and then come north, but we feel confident, from evidence to hand, that it will not be long before New Zealand trade will be brought direct to our port. So far as rates are conceninl. Hull is able to score. It cannot fail to be an inducement that the rates to London and to Hull should be the same. This will mean a considerable saving in the charges for cross-country freight. It is hardly likely that traders are going W pay for goods to be carried from London to Hull and all the other places in the ;hc Xnvtli where there is a dcuund fur

i'hciii fnii!i u population nf on.* oli'vcii million*, wheij tl)i;v can avail the:i!.Jo!vc.-. of :'. ili*lril>irtin;» centre without having to pny i>y.tvn for it." ■