TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8107, 30 March 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Ad Australian who has returned to Sydney on a visit, after fifteen years' mining experience in Johannesburg, says that the abolition of Ohineße labour means the loss of employment to many thousands of whito men. He states that the reports of crimes and bad behaviour by Chinese in South Afrioa are greatly exaggerated, as the great mass of them are well-behaved and do their work well, while the reports regarding their ill-treatment by mine-owners are untrue.

The perennial servant question has opened a fresh branch. At the annual meeting of the Ohriatohuroh Golf Club, on Saturday night, a member said the oaddie question was getting very serious. The quality of small boy servitor available had deteriorated very greatly, and it behoved the committee to do sometiling. He also remarked that on Sundays the chief relaxation of the oaddie seemed to be to stand outside the fences and jeer at those who worked the clubs inside. The meeting took no action.

A Sydney resident who has been on a visit to Siam, thus speaks of its olimate, according to the Daily Telegraph:—''lt does not strike one as being at all a desirable place to live in. The climate is such that you can hatch duok eggs in the sun. That is no romance, because I have seen the Chinese there engaged in this interesting operation. Chinese, as you are aware, have a weakness for poultry, and they rear

duobs iaSiamiforthe table. - 1 have seen them; put the eggs out in: the son. At night they cover them with a blanket, and the next morning they tarn, the eggs, so as- to expose the other side to the ana's rays. Soon the ducklings burst through.the shells. No; Slam, isno> place for a. white man."

Evidently Magistrate Riddell does not consider the netting of trout without a license a very serious offeuoe, says the Otautau Standard. The penalty for the offence is a floe of not less than £2 or more than. £SO. Kennedy's aud Grant's offence, to which they pleaded guilty, of netting trout in Jacob's River, and being found with upwards of 60 : trout in their possession, was viewed by the magistrate as a minor offence. He fined defendants £3 and £2, respectively. We may surely expect to hear of more netting before long, it is undoubtedly the cheapest way of getting a good supply of fish, aDd why should the public not view the magistrate's ruling in this oase as the mighty law's precedent for all similar offences.

A naxmiller from Shannon, Mr J.. Toomath, was in Marlborough last week, trying to discover why the' flax from that district gained higher points in grading than that from Manawatu. After an inspection of the mills, he was satisfied that* the secret lay move in the handling than in the quality of the green flax. Marlborough millers appeared to make the most of each lot treated, the greatest care being taken in steeping and paddockine. Manawatu millers attempted to put through too much material in a day. Tney would treat ten tons per day under circumstances in which Marlborough. Drillers, employing the same number of. hands, would treat seven tons. Mr Toomath noticed thaG large flax-bearing areas were being depleted, and that there were large areas of waste swamp land which, with Government assistance, could ; be utilised for flax culture.

It is stated that in some localities where the men are engaged on the North Island Main Trunk line considerable difficulty is experienced in procuring supplies. In some plaoes the small traders do not keep sufficient stocks on hand to meet requiremants, a condition whiob, to some extent is due to the very bad roads. In other localities the traders refuse to supply the would-be oustomers with their requirements unless money is tendered or the a©oount guaranteed. The consequence is that some difficulty is experienced in retaining the services of many who go tu the works in the hope of securing employment. With a view to effecting a remedy and thus to enable the work of constructing the railway being pushed oa more expeditiously it has been suggested that the Government should open temporary stores for the sun-' ply of necessaries to their own workmen in these out-of-the-way plaoes.

According to tbe New York American, a fair impostor drove to Tiffany's jewellery stores, in New York, lately, and bought £2,000 worth of valuable trinkets. She Impersonated, it is alleged, a wellknown fashionable lady in New York, whose credit is praotioaliy unlimited at any New York shop, and was allowed, says the story, to go away with the goods. Sub equently, it was stated, the lady who had beea impersonated appeared, and the robbery was revealed. The story reads very nicely (says the New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph), and has exoited much speculation regarding the identity of the persons concerned. Investigation, however, shows conclusively that no robbery has taken place at Tiffany's, and that the entire newspaper report is a sheer fabrication from beginning to end. When this fact became evident, criticism took place at the expense of Mr William Randolph Hearst, the proprietor and editor, whose battle cry in the recent eleotions tbdre was "Honesty, straight forwardness,' and purity" in all things. The New York American's explanation is that in the stress of modern life there is no time to investigate every robbery reported!