CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 13, 3 June 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

[ DRIVING TUG PEOPLE. If national prohibition, with all its I tremendous uncertainty, ever comes, it will bo because the brewers have driven the men and women of the Dominion to it.—-Dannevirke News. ' NEGLECT OF CHILDREN. One hesitates to extend tho principle of compulsion too far, but seeing that parents' are punished if they do not send their children to school, it is certainly open to argument that they should bo punished if they willingly neglect to secure medical treatment for their children when its needs have been pointed out to them. There is no valid reason for fluch ne.gle.rt, seeing that the out-patients' departments of the public hospitals are open to those who are too poor to pay for medical advice in the ordinary way.—Ohristchurch. Press. Til IS "BIG" MEN AND TIIE BANKri. We have reason to think that the tightness of money in New Zealand of late has been due in no small measure to large holders, with plenty of security at their back, making demands upon the financial institutions, in order to extend the area of their possessions. They have borrowed money from the hank at five and six per cent to-make an immediate return of fen and twenty per cent and a productive profit in sales. Bu:. .'.omeone will say, the money advanced by the banks must go into circulation. Some of it will, of course, do so. A great deal of if, however, is taken out of the country mid expended in travel and luxury. It is hardly fair to small holders and business men that the financial institutions should be placed unreservedly at the disposal of the big pro-perty-owner. That is not the primary object of hanking institutions, to our way of thinking.—Wairarapa Age.

THE IMPORTED OFFICERS. General Sir lan Hamilton, in the couro of a public address at Wellington said: —"1 think that the imported officers are certainly doing their very best, and I do believe, although it may be conceited to believe it, that they are doing good work here. On the other hand, I am perfectly certain that, in doing that work, they are doing a good stroke for themselves also. I think that, very often, in our higher educational colleges for tho training of men for military service at Home, people get rather a narrow and high-.and-dry view of their duties. They get a little separated from tho pure human element which lies at the bottom of every great work. I think when they come out liere, and feel that they have got to be. on very friendly terms with the stationmaster—(laughter)—and to be as nice ■as they possibly can to the constable's wife, and that, far from concentrating themselves entirely, us they are rather taught to do in these higher educational establishments that I have referred to, on wonderfully high strategy and tactics, they have to get dnwn iu the mud and teach young boys the goose step. I think all that is perfectly splendid for them. But I think that there, is a mutual obligation. As regards their wishes and ideas, I know that it is their wish to give a complete quid pro quo for everything New Zealand gives them (Applause). I certainly hope that +hev do it.

GOLD IN CHINA. It is stated that after five years of continuous work, during which'a huge amount of money was expended, a S'.'dney syndicate has secured a mining con cession of a great tract of land iii one of the provinces of China. The eoii.xs-.ion is said to embrace a. continuous range of low-lying hills that run for a distance of some thirty-five miles. 1!. is stated that this range of hiiU i„ intersected by a formation exailiy similar in every detail to the .Johaan-vburg "blanket" formation, ani tha: .-.-.si,"

taken over thousands of feet, both from the outcrop as well as from shalluw shafts,vanged from iidwl i<> :'«r/. of mild pel' ten of ore. It is- stated that "one Sydney mining man bus spent several thousands of pounds upon reports from competent mining experts, as well as in wages, before the concession was obtained 1 from the Provincial Chinese Government. It is also stated Unit several Melbourne mining men desired to secure a large interest in the concession, but their financial assistance wis declined., «3 one of the members of the ftyjnex syudtaito will leave for Lon-lon 'at an early date for the purpi.v- of enlisting the help of the English ca.pitali.sU ili handling the development of tho couoossion on an extensive pcnle.