TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7942, 17 January 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Aerial military inspection appears to be one of tbe possibilities latent in tbe military airship. General Micbal, who commands the 20th French Corps, recently inaae his general inspection of the entrenched oarnp at Toulon by this means. He made use of the now famous Lebaudy airship for tbe purpose, piloted by a captain aeronaut, and attended by the staff usual on such ceremonial occasions. On descending, the General warmly congratulated the balloon upon the great ease with which he had been enabled to thoroughly examine the surrounding defence works in their ensemble in so short a time. The judgment in the "corset case" of Bros. v. Treadway and Co., delivered by Mr Justice Holroyd in Melbourne recently, occupied over Hfty sheets of closely written foolscap. With an interval of an hoar and a half between the two parts, it took the judge a bout two hours and a half to read it. It is ten months since judgment was reserved. When the case was first brought into court (says an Australian paper) it was stated by thuse engaged that the hearing would likely last a fortnight or three weeks. The fact that it occupied seventy-two sitting days shows how difficult it is to estimate the possibilities of litigation onoo it is embarked upon. The costs of the litigation must have been enormous, as quite early in the history of the trial it was said that £3OOO had been exhausted, and that represented the costs of only one side. A letter has been received by the Premier of New South Wales from Mr Goghlan, the Acting AgentGeneral in which tho writer states that a large body of immigrants will be attracted to the Colony upon terms upon which laud is being offered in the State privately it information is made available . in England. "In England," Mr Coghlan writes, "people are paying as high as frdm £2 to £4 per acre per

annum rent for land, which is aot better than areaa wbiali are available in New South Wales, and which are offered privately and by the Government for aa many shillings an acre. They are very eager to come out, and are keen about getting land. One thing, however t that is frightening them is the largeness of the areas of Myall Creek. An area of 400 acres is more than they consider themselves able to manage, as they have been used to such small holdings in England. That is one reason wny 160 acres in Canada apnoals so much to the British farmer. 1 ' Why is it that an American, who in rigorous test, cannot produce such a good article as the Briton, so often gets ahead in sales? I think, says Mr John Foster Fraaer in Method, I can sum it up in one word —Adaptability. The American has no reverence for tradition. The fact a thing has been done a particular way for a generation is not evidence to him that experience has proved it to oe the best way," but that the time has come fur some other and better method to be found He loves ohange, even for the sake of ohanpe. He appreciates the common inclination to believe that something which is different must be better. The thirst for change has become almost a mania in America. The American does not make a god of experience. The American believes—and I think he is right—that experience is one of the lesser qualities requisite in the successful management of a business. A young fcaan wltb knowledge tuned to the necessities of the time, quiou, fertile in thought, adventuresome even, is better than a gentleman usually , described as "safe" and with twenty years of experience.

London at present nontaias many hundreds of Jews who Jbave escaped massacre in various parts of Kussia, and their demand for work makes the unemployed problem the more aoute. Every ship from the German and Dutch ports brings some of the refugees, most of whom are practioally penniless. The more fortunate find work with sweating tailors, who pay them five or six shillings a week, which enables them to share a night's lodging in some filthy, over-crowded garret or cellar. where eight or ten men sleep on saoks on the floor. Black bread, a bit <of pickled herring, and a cup of bad tea, is their food, with a piece of gherkin or cucumber as an occasional luxury. The unluoky, who cannot even secure this work, spendthe nights roaming the streets, or sleeping on staircases and in doorways until moved on by the police. By day they beg a penny qr half: penny from a comnatriot, and buy a piece of black bread and a slice of cat's meat, which they devour ravenously. The refugee is, at least, not exacting about his fare, in Russia he has eaten the flesh of dogs, and in London horseflesh is oiten his only meat. Mr John Burns has committed himself and his colleagues to a formidable undertaking in promising that the Liberal Government will deal with the poverty problem,, and in implying that it will-find work for every able-bodied man and woman in the Kingdom. The new President pf the Local Government Board has, however, made the labour question his own, and his admission to the Cabinet Bhows that after long years of eloquent advooacy his views have won the sympathy of the leaders of the Liberal Party. Mr Burns was one of the most strenuous opponents of the measuro with which the Conservatives attempted tooope with the unemployed difficulty, and by his speeches in the House of Commons, and on the public platform probably did more than any other member of the party to expose its inadequacy and to bring it into disrepute with the public. The Bill was a poor limp thing that proposed to give work to the unemployed at starvation wages in direct competition with men who were maintaining themselves without State assistance, and Mr Burns denounced it in unsparing tertaos. '