CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 234, 12 March 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A. DISTINCT LOSS. The reesignation of Mr. Primrose McConnell from the. service of the Agricultural Department represents a distinct loss to the community. It is a regrettable fact that from various causes New Zealand has in recent vcars lost many fine men from the ranks of the State servants engaged in the primary industries, and it is small satisfaction to the producers of this Dominion that these men have since been placed in eminent positions in the sister States of the Empire. It is doubtful if New Zealand contains another man so fully qualified as Mr. McConnell for the important work with which he lias been entrusted as manager of the State Experimental Farms. It is possibly six years since he succeeded Mr. F. Gillanders as manager at Moumahaki. Whilst there he "made good" in the eyes of the farming community, and he will be remembered long in Taranaki as the man who demonstrated beyond all question the value of lucerne as a fodder plant for dairy purposes, and its possibilities in this soil and climate. The Ruakura Farm, under his management, lias been a glorious success. Ho seems to be quite an fait with every departfarm activity, and the success of the practical work 'demonstrates the soundness of his training and experience, besides which it has served to demonstrate to farmers—who have as a class a decided antipathy to theory—the success of the ideas which he has so lucidly expounded in those eminently practical articles which have contributed in a very large measure to the success of the Agricultural Journal, and its success among land users. Waste land at Ruakura has been "brought in v | and made to produce abundantly. Under able tuition the Huakura staff has grown bountiful root crops, and stored and fed _them out with success. The value of the rotation of crops lias been demonstrated, and in manv ways this experimental station made 'a source of profit to the agriculturist. Farmers of Taranaki deeply regretted that Mi' McConnell was prevented from giving liis lecture at New 'Plymouth during the Agricultural Show week. Had the Arrangements not been interfered with, he would have gathered from the very large gathering of agriculturists that his services are highly valued in this part of the Dominion.

RUSSIAN REFORM.

At first glance it sarins incredible that the prohibition of vodka should already have had such widespread results for good in Russia, but that such results have been achieved is confirmed by most reliable authority. No writer is more familiar with the vast dominions of Russia, from the Black Sea to Eastern Siberia, than Stephen Graham, and be has given his affirmation. Recently we bad cabled the confirmation of the Times' correspondent in Russia. in few other countries could such a swift change have taken place, and that for several reasons. In the first place the manufacture and simply of vodka was a State monopoly, and it was quite a simple matter for the State to close the supply at the fountain-head even though by doing so a huge revenue of £oo.oriO.flOo a year was sacrificed. Then the Russian national character is essentially docile, and is morbid in an equal degree. It is the non-resistant sensitiveness and mofbid fatalism of the Russian character that has made it so susceptible to the influence of liquor. Only a. cursory acquaintance with Russian literature is sufficient to show how the Russian can relinquish-bis grip on life and sink into a fearsome underworld of squalor, or rise to the full height of his strangely idealistic nature according to the influences surrounding him. Corruption from the highest to the lowest was one of the unpleasant revelations of the Russo-Japanese war, hut this corruption was more, accepted custom than innate greed, for events showed equally the heights of selfsacrifice which Russian spirits can ttain. The fatalisitc idea of the Rusian character whih makes'the individual nonresistant and apathetic towards life is the same snirit which gives power to Rttam to the higher national virtues when properly inspired. It is the promise of the good inspiration shown in this, huge sacrifice of revenue for the uplifting of the peonle which guarantees the promises of further freedom to Poland and Finland. i

JAPANESE ACTIVITY. It may speni ungracious to comment on Japan's determined endeavor to secure some, of the trade Germany lias had liitliovto as lior own exclusive business, nartienlarly as Japan is one of Hie allied nations against Germany and deserves liPr pliare of tlie spoils of commerce not less tlmn any other nation fsnys the SmO. "Rut. jf t]lat < , onimpnti ' does sppm ungracious, it is necessary nevertlielpss. Japan lias always been S Wonderfully imitative nation.' a people who rcouiro to be shown how to do a thin? onl<- .Mipp. and who will thereafter produce tlvnf, thing with nndovintm ff Already tliey liavn a. t)i" '" -■'• ' f"'- iniH-lHe".-;' ,f Knrnnpnn manufactures, and just at the nresent moment, as every commercial man 1-nows. tliey are out to cantnre one of Germany's most profitable' industries—tlie manufacture of srlasswnro. This is milv one bvniipli of industry; tliey will develop others later on, but tin's particular industry may be taken as an example. Their glassware is in all essentials a replica of tlip German article, faithfully popipd, ouitp as good but infinitely cheaper. That is where the hoint lies—the low post of production in Japan enables her to tret ahead of Hie Australasian, manufacturer, and if Hie Australasian is to erpatp. industrips, find to maintain his standard of livim?' he must lie eontent to put ample protcetion on his manufactures and be patriotic enough to buy them instead of imported goods. In a message receiv- :

Ed from Auckland the other day, a Japanese trade envoy suggests that there is a possibility of Japan subsidising a direct service of ships to Australia and New Zealand. It isn't all unlikely, for the Japanese is clever, but such subsidised vessels laden with cheap manufactured goods, equal in quality to those which we ourselves could produee, would be a most effective barrier against the objects of the proposed New Zealand Board of ITradc and Industries, if no preventive measures are taken.