TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8114, 7 April 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The correspondent of a northern contemporary states that as soon as the new Parliament meets, it is intended to form a strong Radical party, whose members, it is estimated, will number from sixteen to twenty. By the formation of his party it is not proposed to aot in any way inimical to the Seddon Government, which will be supported by these Radicals as hitherto. The main t.bjeot in view is to press on the Government the absolute necessity for administrative reform and departmental effioienoy.

In bis annual report the Chief Inspector of Schools under the Auckland Education Board stated that the roll number at the public sohools in the distriot showed, for the y«ar, the unusually large increase of 1,377, and the number present at his annual visit had increased by 1792. Regarding the dearth of teaohers, the report, stated that after a year or two they might expect the Training College to furnish a steady, if not ample, supply. The dearth might not, however, be assuaged until they employed a larger staff of pupil teaohers and greatly lessened the amount of teaching required of them.

One of the prlnoipal hindrances to working women accepting daily employment in Auokland has been the difficulty experienced in finding Bomeone to mind their babies when away from home. The New Zealand Herald says that this has now been got over thanks to the efforts

nf the members:, of- the Awglioau Obarohii Sisterhood,, which,, in am unostentatious-way,, has done, and iß> doing, an immense amount of goodamongr the poorer people in. the oity. The> sisfceis, whose headquarters are in Grey Street, have opened a day nursery,, where children may, lie left by, their mothers with.the! satisfaction ot knowing that they will:be well oared for.

i Parisians-were recently startled I)'y. jseeing, a big*booted man whizzing ■along the Avenue des Champs Ely'aees, and. thence to the Bois de ;Boulogne,.at a- rate of twenty-four imiles an hour. It was- M. Constant inventor of motor boots,.displaying, bis new footwear.. The 'boots resembte'tiny, automobiles, fifteen inches- long, fixed on highi boots. Each has four ru&ber-tired wheels- eight inobes in diameters Accumulators are carried in a belt. They, transmit by wires,. IJ£ horsepower to, each, motor. The motor can, be run at a speed ranging' from/ six, to thirty miles an hour. Each l boott weighs sixteen* pounds,, but. as the feet are not lifted* up the'weight? does not matter. Oonstantini. claims- to have travelled' several: hundred miles with them. H&: intends to travel from; Paris to St.. Petersburg ou them.

Ao' American doctor avers that hypnotismi cau prevent people from: dying; Dr. John QuaokenJboa, Professor of Physiology at Columbia University and member of the London Sooiety for Physical! announced to a. New York audience' hie discovery, of tbo power of hypnotism,, says the Tribune. He eay* he- saved the' llife of a lady dying from, pneumonia last Jlune. liev .condition was an equivalent to a death sentence—a temperature of deg k ,. pulse' respirationi 160. Dr. Qnaofcenbos took one of the lady's hands,, called her by name,, andi commanded her nob to, die. After working over her a few minutes- the patient's mental mist cleared! away. She talked coherently, aodi finally recovered. Dr. Quackenbos declared; tnat two othe* patients had been saved from, death by a medical man shouting a command' in the ear at the moment of dissolution.

The Minister of Lands* interviewed at Ohi-istcburoli, oa the subject of sattlemeut in North Canterbury, stated that there was plenty of country for land settlement* and there was uo doubt that later oa some of that land would be acquired. Questioned as to whether Cheviot had been out up in the beat possible manner oonsistent with the interest of land settlement and those of the tenants, Mr Duncan said that the division of the estate was no doubt a good one when the settlement was first started, and when the .means of getting rid of the produce were difficult and costly. Then it was necessary that the areas held by the individual tenants should be fairly large. Those conditions, however, would be altered with the approach of the railway, and there would be room for smaller holdings than existed now. He had found a tendency on the part of Crown tenants to ' ask for larger holdings, and a lot of them were crying out for larger places.

, Mr B. L. Hodgson, a New Zealander, who went to South Afrioa, and settled there, ia revisiting Ohristchurob. He believes that a good trade oan be worked up in conjunction" with the export of stock to South Afrioa. He has exceptionally good opportunities of knowing how New Zealand stock is received in South Afrioa. He says that no horses stand in higher favour than those from New Zealand and England. Good single and double harness horses from 14.1 hands to 15 hands sell at from £3O to £SO, and good carriage ponies from 15 to 16 hands up to £l5O. Trade is done at present on a small soale, especially with the North Island. There is also a big demand for New Zealand cattle. Mr Hodgson - attended the Addington sale last week, and he states that some of the dry cows he saw there for 35* would bring as much as £8 or £9 in Johannesburg, while milking oows i sell in the South African city at from £25 to £3O. He saw some North Island cattle landed at Durban in splendid condition. They were the finest cattle he had seen for a long time. There is only one drawbaok to opening up an extensive trade, he says, and that is J;be excessive freight. It amounts to £l2 10s a head, and when the cost of feed and other expenses is added the price is made so high that the transactions are not sufficiently profitable to induce people to engage in the trade to a large extent.