TOPICAL NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7966, 17 February 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL NOTES.

Captaiu Bauchope, officer commanding the Canterbury distriot, has received a cheque for £IOO from Mr G. G. Stead towards the purchase of four shields- as rifle-shoot-ing trophies. This amount carries with it a £IOO subsidy from the Government. Writing on the subjeot, Mr Stead said: "Good shooting is essential if the volunteers are to be of any practical use in time of danger. 1 thoroughly believe that every adult male should be accustomed to the use of the rifle, and four years ago 1 suggested to the Premier that rifle shooting should be taught in the public schools, the Government to provide the ammunition. If boys during the last two years of their schooling went through a short course of rifle practice, even only to the extent of firing fifty rounds a year, it would give eaoh some idea of the use of the rifle, with the result that, in the course of a few years, the majority of the male adults in the colony, would be of some use if the neoessity should arise to piotect the colony from outside attacks." / A curious scene o&urred at the Mount Morgan (Queensland) Police Court recently. A barrister, Mr 0. B. Fitzgerald, was apoear'ng for the defendant in a Sunday trading case and made some remaiks to whioh the magistrate, Mr J. C. Linedale, took exception. Some lively exchanges followed, which culminated in the magistrate ordering Mr Fitzgerald to leava the oourt. Mr Fitzgeiald did so, but when the court resumed business in the afternoon he was again present. Another scene ooourred, and eventually Mr Linedale ordered one of the constables in court to remove the barrister. The latter refused to go, whereupon the constable clasped him in his ar.us and carried him out. Mr Fitzgerald, whilst in the embrace of the constable, wished the court "Goodmorning," but at the conclusion of the oase he tried to get in by a aide window, and asked the Police Magistrate to say he had forcibly ejected him from the oourt. "Remove the man," said Mr Linedale, and the incident was closed by a constable putting Mr Fitzgerald outside the courtyard gate. Thus the London correspondent of the Age:—London is permitting foreign manufacturers to supply at undercutting rates, almost the whole of the rolling stock and fittings for its new underground railways. It is the foreigner, again, who is supplying us with motor omnibuses—another vast source of profit and of employment for Continental workmen. And the Londoners look on quietly with a sort of fatalistlo philosophy, pay big weekly bills for the maintenance of 127,000 paupers (including a large portion of ablebodied workmen), discuss pitiful schemes for five-acre farni9, and hope for better times. Freetrade politicians have been busy lately in importing horse flesh sausages and exhibiting them as samples of "the food whioh the German workmen are obliged to eat." The fact is overlooked, however, that many of the frugal German workmen habitually prefer horseflesh on the grounds of economy. And at least they oan pay for their horseflesh aaasages—with the wages earned in the manufacture of goods for the British market—whereas it is undeniablo that thousands of British families, barely keeping off the charities, cannot afford anything better than odds and ends of fried fish, which they buy cooked, because they cannot provide fdel enough to cook it for themselves.

The Berliner Tageblatt publishes with what the Berlin correspondent of tbe Londou Globe describe.! as "unconoealed. satisfaction," a long lector received from its Tokio corrosnondeut, under date of November 12th, in reference to "Japanese oppunonts of the alliance with England." This opposition is said tobe led by Viscount Tani, Mr Lukamoto Sel (a young politician), aad Mr Ozaki Yukoi (the Mayor of Toluol Viscount Tani says in the Conservative organ, Nippon, that the war with Russia- was due to the first alliance between Great Britain aurl Japan. His opinion of the British Navy is curious; England's Navy in Nelson's days was the best on tbe seas; a long peace has weakened it; it ia perhaps weaker than was the Kus9ian Navy. The Enaiiab army is the worst in the world, and its military system has reached the summit of decadence. Its officers are the sons of rich parents; they regard their service as a moans of passing the time; they lack education aud zeal. Their arrangements are wretched and could not be improved in case of war. To throw ourselves into the arms of England is to commit suicide. Moreover, England is not noble-minded. It pardoned the horrible deeds of the Kuasian Baltic fleet in the North Sea for a paltry million of money, and allowed the Russian vessels to pass down the "Channel. If England had really sympathised with Japan, then it would never have, allowed the Russian warships to sail through the Channel."