TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8100, 21 March 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Mr James Maokay, Deputy Chief Inspector of . Factories, who. is at present in Dunedin, states that there is abundant employment in the labour market for everybody able and willing to do the class of work required. There is no occasion for anyone to be out of employment for any length of time if he is anxious to accept the work offered. With the exception of the Otago Central Kail way, which is rapidy nearing completion, the railway works in the course of construction throughout the colony are capable of absorbing all the labour available, and taking the colony as a whole, the labour outlook is extremely Bright. The domestic ser vant problem, on the other hand, is still very acute, and Mr Mackay states that his department is besieged with enquiries whenever a Home steamer is reported on which there is a possibility of some domestics being included in the passenger list. Whenever it did happen tbafc there were any on board, they were snapped up before they had time to get ashore.

A gloomy report concerning the state of the building trades in South Africa is supplied by Mr W. fl. Hornbyj a former president of the North Sydney Bricklayers' Society. Mr Hornby has returned to New South Wales after three years' residence in South Africa, and has brought with him data supplied by the secretaries of trades unions, showing that a large number of men are out of work, and, that, owing to laok of funds, they were unable to get away. For a year or so after the close of the war there was a brisk demand for skilled labour, but during last year, according to Mr Hornby, "South Africa went to pieces," and now there are hundreds of men walking about. Upwards of 800 carpenters were out of work towards the end of January, and this unemployed total was sup. plemented by some 300 bricklayers, 150 plasterers, 100 enginemen, and from 60 to 70 painters.

la the oourso of a conversation with • a pressman (telegraphs the Dunedin correspondent of a Southem contemporary), a well-known accountant, referring to thefts by youthful employees, stated that it seemed as if honesty among the rising generation in Dunedin was muoh less thought of than formerly. He cited no less than four oases of peculation that had come under his own personal observation within the past few months when auditing the accounts of various businesses. Two were cased where hoys were the culprits. One of them manipulated the stamp account so as 'to make about 5a a week out of it, and the other added up the wages sheet so as to have a balance of from 2s 6d to 10s per week in excess of its real total, the boy himself pocketing the dittereuoe. The gentleman remarked that to a certain extent he had sympathy with the views reearding juvepile offenders put before the Minister of Justice by the deputaton on Monday, it seemed to him that theie was was grave danger in the present-day tendency towards leniency in case of dishonest practices by juveniles.

The President of the Auckland Acclimatisation Sooiety(Mr F. Earl),, JT speaking recently at a meeting reference to the Premier's suggestion , to allow the Maoris to fish without licenses in the Rotorua district, saidi it would be a sorry time for our trout fishery if it were proposed to give the natives full and free right'; to fish without restriction. He thought that the natives might be allowed to fish in Lake Rotoruc, which was overstocked, on paying a. reduced fee, but if streams and waters not heavily stocked were to be fished by natives at a low licensefee, much of the work done, by thesociety would be thrown away, and the angling attractions of the district would soon be non existent: He was not unmindful that theangler had a good deal to thank the native fir in the shape of per- ,y mission to walk over private landa. iA while fishing without being hailed ▼ a trespasser, but it would absolutely mean ruination to this sport it the Maori were to be allowed to> fish for trout simply on the certificate of bis brown tkin. The question of whether poultryfarming pays has not only been* solved in the affirmative by Mr R. H. Smale, of Blenheim, but it baa been demonstrated (says the Marlborough Herald) by actual trial that poultry-keeping is a necessity to the successful orcbardist where codlin moth abounds. Last year Mr Smale's apple and pear trees were completely destroyed by the m ito, and all specifics tried by him hitherto were either entire or partial failures, and none were worth the time and expense spent upon them, so hef" oonoeived the notion of enclosing * his half-aore of orchard with wire' netting and confining about 200 White Leghorn fowls therein. His theory was that the fowls would find the grub before it reached the fruit* and deal with it.' He was evidently right for not a pear is injured, and only three apples have been found afteoted, and these all on one tree at the far end of the fowl-run, where the long grass gave the grub a chance to escape. The experiment Jis a decided success, for it .not only costs nothing, but is an independent source of income, whereas in another orchard where we can vouch for the fact that it. has been limed, and afterwards sprayed twice, few trees have escaped the grub, and some of them are badly infeoted. Those who wish to try the experiment may not sucoeed with Another breed than Leghorns, because they are active birds and high flyers, constantly on the look-out for a dainty morsel. •,