TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8108, 31 March 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Various improvements are contemplated (says the Otaao Daily Times) in connection with our trans-alpine tourist routes, as the result of Mr T. E. Donue's recent visit to the West Coast. It is proposed to place facilities in the ; way of climbers crossing the divide betweeD the head of the Great Tasman Olaoier, on. the eastern slopes of the Mount Cook alpine group, and the Franz Josef Ulacier, on the west, by ereoting a mountain hut at the De la Beohe bivouac, high above the Tasman, and another on the Kallerey Ridge, above

the Franz Josef. These huts will enable climbers to "make the crossing of Graham's Saddle (.the pass near the head of the Tasman Glacier) with much greater convenience and safety than is the case at present. Thie alpine journey from the Accommodation House at the foot of the Franz Josef to the Mount Cook Hermitage, or vice versa, by this route, will take about three days. The rat viruß which the New South Wales Government, according to a lecent cable, is likely to take up for use in the State with a view to minimising the danger of plague distribution by vermin is made by the Liverool Institute of Comparative Pathology. It is harmless to man, domestic auimals, sheep, dogs, cats, poultry, eto. It produces in rats a disease which is fatal in from seven to fourteen days, and spreads from animal to animal. Many startling instances of »ts success have* been reported. In the West Indies it is said to have been of immense benefit to the coo.ua planters,, destroying rats which nibble' fallen pods. The preparation is now largely used in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and Demerara, 200*000: tubes having been sent to the West Indies alone during the liaat six months. Periodically the public of Wellington' get some reminder that the wily Chinaman is planting himself firmly in their mkist. While Europeans have been apparently slumbering- the Asiatic has been wide awake, and now he is said : to be "dabbling" hv the furniture trader His invasion of the real'm; of furniture is regarded' with apprehension. This industrial aspect, however, has been brought into prominence because the Auckland 1 Trades andi Labour Council l has forwarded the following remit for the Easter Labour Conference :r—"Seeing that the present polltax of £loo'per head on Chinese immigrants is not sufficient to prevent larce numbers of Chinaman from coining'into the colony,, tied band and foot to' Chinese employers, who have advanced the amount of their polll-tax, this conference is of the opinion that the tax should, be increased to not less than £2OO per head 1 ." Approving the general tenor of the remit,, the Wellington Trades and Labour Cbunoil has decided to urge that the poll-tax should be not less than £IOOO with an education ' test as' well.. The Auckland correspondent of the Lyttel'ton Times telegraphs:— Among'the passengers who arrived :by the Ventura from San Francisco .i» Mr Albert' Goldie, special correspondent of the New York Commercial, one of the leading Conservative dailies of the United States. Mr Goldie is- commissioned to prepare articles for a special New Zealand : supplement of hie paper in connection with' the coming Exhibition. This, he says, is the result of, many inquiries which are being made iu the American metropolis regarding ; New Zealand's commercial aud industrial development. Mr Goldie's : instructions are to investigate the industries of this country, with the object of discovering in what direction American capital may be utilised for profitable enterprise. The paper being closely in touoh with the most prominent financiers, its correspondent is authorised to introduce any industrial proposition, however, stupendous, so long as its oliiiois are legitimate. The supplement, which will be one of a series devoted to Australasia, will oonsist of eight pages, and will be issued probably in August. It is intended to print 100,000 copies of the number. According to the Auckland Herald, a shipment of poultry was made by the local depot-of the Government poultry export department by the s.s. Papanui for London, on Wednesday last. The shipment comprised 350 head of poultry, averaging 4 J£lb a bird. Some of the chickens weighed to 71b apieoe at four months old, whilst some ducklings turned the scale at 51b to 61b for eleven weeks old. The consignment is expected to reach the London market some time next month. In connection with the export of poultry, it is interesting to note that Mr A. Hart, the Victorian Government expert, when judging recently a consignment v of New South Wales poultry for London, is reported to have said that "English buyers are in Melbourne to-day giving the highly remunerative price of 6d per lb live weight, at the depot, for all poultry passed by the Government graders." The United States Service College, at Harependen (England) is specially to train boys for colonial life. Mr F. W. Tracy, the headmaster, has drawn up a system of instruction, in which the chief points are decimals, and the metric system, mensuration aud land survey; trigonometry sufficient for computing heights and distances; a colloquial knowledge of French, German and Spanish; the geography and history of the colonial Empire, together with the elementary duties of citizenship, the technicalities of ooinmeroial transactions, and book keeping, with shorthand and typewriting; such geology as in involved iu wells, minerals; the care of horses and stock, together with some knowledge of agriculture and fruit-growing; and other courses which will not only lay a sound foundation for general excellence in the use of both mind and body, but will ulso enable a man to apply his particular talents to any special line of profitable industry.