TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7963, 14 February 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

In an artiole in the "North American Review," Lieut-General von Alten, who, until his retirement, held high positions on the General Staff, rejects the possibility of Japan being able to offer any armed assistance to Great Britain in her vain effort to repel the coming Russian advance towards India, and concludes:—"Neither diplomatic arts, money,) threats, nor even the British army on the Indus can avert the fate of the buffer state, Afghanistan, which civilised Great Britain would deprive of the blessings, of roads and railways. The ultimate victory is on the side of the spirit of progress, which, moving fbitb from the Russian steppes, is destined to bind Afghanistan with girders of Iron, irrevocably to the Empire of the Czar." As showing the "substantiality" of the settlers on Flixbourne as a class, says the Marlborough Express, it is interesting to learn that, out of the £2,300 due by lease-in-perpetuity .tenants for the current half-year of 1906, all except £350 has been paid already. Of course, the terms require payment in advenoe, and there is an 'additional enoouragement of a rebate on moneys paid during the first month, bm af the same time considering that so far practically nothing has been taken from the country ir the way of a return, the fact that nearly 80 per cent, of the rent has been paid.so readily augurs well for the confidence and stability of the settlers. The small grazing leaseholders' payments are due on March Ist. The total rental of the settlement is about £IO,OOO per annum. Interesting evidenoe as to the demand for farm"labourers was given incidentally by Mr James McGregor before the Tariff Commission at Melbourne reoently, says the Argus. The witness said he rjaid his men "£1 a week and round" all the year round, but men'had offered;to work for him for 10s and even 5s per week. "I would not have them on the place," he said, "tbey are m the way. It is my experience that the cheapest labour is the dearest in the end." Applicants were of all classes,

and Mr McGregor employed a chemist for a time. "I soon got rid of him," he said. The demand, according to the witness, was always for able bodied and willing men, but there are few of this class applying now. At present Mr MoGregor said, men who ought to be in a benevolent asylum or receiving old-age pensions, were seeking employment in the country. The men of really suitable type were either engaged on contract work or living in the cities. M. Camile Plammarion, the eminent French astronomer, declares that the inhabitants of the plane'Mars are much more highly developed than ourselves, "Naturally," he says, "it is impossible for us to imagine what forms living beings must take there; but it is equally impossible for us to assert that the forces oE nature, which are there the same as here, and act under almost similar conditions (atmosphere, climate, seasons-, aqueous vapour, and so on), have been rendered sterile by a perpetual miracle of (annihilation whereas on the earth the cup of life overflows everywhere arid the generating force of beings immensely surpasses their real and durable vitality. There are many advantages in favour of the Martians. First of all, it would be difficult for a human species to be less intelligent than ours, seeing that we do not know bow to control ourselves. The second reason is that progress is an absolute law which nothing can resist. The hypothesis that Mars is inhabited by an intellectual race much superior to our own is growing stronger; every year in proportion as astronomical observations 'become more and more precise. The London Chronicle of December 29th says:—An overpowering odour of roast beef filled the large hall of the Northampton Institute, Glerbenwell, at the unfashionable hour of six o'clock last night, but It did not overpower any of tb« thousand children who were the guestß of the Ragged School Union and Shaftesbury Society. The buzz of conversation which preceded the putting away of a big plate of beef and vegetables was hardly drowned, by the baud which played popular and patriotic airs, as a digestive. The great feast in due of the poorest parts of London waß provided by funds raised in South Australia by the Children's Sunbeam Society. This Sunbeam Society is intended to be helpful to children, and to teach tbem to be helpful to one another. In 1895 one of the 12,000 members had a happy and Imperial thought of suggesting that, in addition to the help given to charities in the colony, a Christmas dinner should be provided for poor little waifs and strays in far-off London. The idea <was adopted, and ever since a large party, such as assembled last night, has bad reason to bless the existence of Australia. And the example of South Australia has been, imitated oti a smaller, but still generous scale by British Columbia, New Zealand and South Africa. Judging by a recent incident at the port of San Francisoo, the idea appears to be held in America that Australians.have a patriotic prefer- * ence for goods of Canadian manufacture over .those made < iu the United States, writes the American correspondent of the Melbourne Age. Fifteen thousand paokages of cereal food, aggregating 540,1081b, which came to San Francisco Jor shipment to Australia, were found to be labelled in a manner contradictory to the manifest, and the consignment was held up pending an investigation. The manifest stated that the food was made in Buffalo, New York, but in large red letters at the end of each package was the inscription,/ "Made in Canada." Now, if the cereal food was made in Canada a duty was payable. Inquiry was therefore set on foot, and it was found that the Arm ia question had no Canadian factory, the food having as stated on the manifests, been made in Buffalo. The deceptive red labels, it was ascertained, were attached for the purpose of "overcoming Australian pre- > N judice against American goods."