TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8123, 21 April 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A striking book ou the Congo has been issued by M. Felicieu Gattieri,. a professor of the-Brussels University, and a man of very high standing. Though a professed Monarchist and a supporter, of colonisation sohemes* the author severely criticises King Leopold and the Congo Governments Professor Oattiet* accuses the King ofillegally enriching, himself while the Congo State budget steadily. declines. Bnormous sums from the proceeds of forced labour have been uaed by the Crown, the author; .asserts, to bribe the Press to.combat British. acousatioua.

A decidedly sharper enquiry hna set in at Timaru for graiu«—both wheat and oats. This is attributed,, in*part at all events,, to; the- probable reduotion in freights. Should this eventuate, there will be a, large quantity of grain shipped Heme froni Timaru,and;if the local market is th*us bared, prioes must go up considerably. Sellers had no difflr oulty in obtaining. 3a for goodwheat in Timaru, on Saturday last. It is thought probable that nullera wii' offer a still; better price,, in order to prevent the export of,tooi much wheat,, and having obtained full stocks, increase the price of flour. The Home market is not: the only one offering just now,, for; 12;000'bags of oats are to be : aent away from Timaru in one bottom.this week, to the. Cape. Another, factor that will make for better price in* oats is to be found in the fact that, a West of England buyer i& expected, to be- operating in South Canterbury, this- week..

At the-close of the year; there were in.' the service of the Wellington Education Board 133 male and WO female teachers, 9 male and 85) female pupil teachers; total 1:42 males,. 2.75 females,, or 417 in aIL The corresponding' number for 1904 were 130 males*. 264 females,, or 397.' in all,, so that the proportion of males has, slightly increased! and it is hoped that the better salaries offered under the scale of 1i905, , may induce a larger number of promising boys to enter, the profession. The eaaotments of. 1905 providing'for a retiring allowance and for an improved rate of payment of teachers has met with, very general approval. A large number of teachers again availed themselves of the instruction in manual and technical subjects offered, at the Wellington and Mastertou: classes conducted hy teachers of the Technical School, and the Fahiataa District High Softool class, conducted by Mr G. A. Jones and Misses Petrie and M'Oaul.

In a letter published in the New Zealand Herald, Mr Andrew M. Campbell, formerly of Taranaki, says that the Canadian is certainly a iirst-olass cheese maker, and his mechanical methods in butter-mak-ing are just about perfeot, and mciob iu advance of New Zealand ways. LJufc for quality of produotiou ho is behind,, the priuoipal rear sou beiug the practice of taking a supply of gathered stale cream-. Geuerally speaking, he says, the dairy herds are no tetter than they are iu Taranaki.

The Premier, replying to a deputation oi' ladies, who recontly waited upon him at Kaugiora, and arepre seated the difficulty experieooed ia obtaining domestic servants, stated that the High Commissioner in London had been asked to make publio the fact that domestic servants were badly wanted in New Zealand, but the Government had no funds for the purpose of paying their passages. He favoured allowing them to come out under a system of reduced wages, &uoh as was open to the wives and daughters of emigrant farmers. The High Commissioner, was told that the colony wanted I,'ooo navvies so that the North Island Main Trunk railway might be finished within three years. The Engineer-in Chief was fa's authority, and the moment they moved in the mutter an attempt was made to set the Labour people on to the Government for encouraging outsiders to come here and take the work away from our own people. "We have not sent for the navies," aided Mr Seddon, "and we are dealing with them in the same way as we are dealing with farm labourers."

Mr Sullivan, of Dunedin, an authority on, the fishing industry, denies there ia a ring or oombiue in the fish trade of New Zealand. Not 5 per cent, of the blue ood caught at the Buff waa sold in New Zealand,

for the reason that steamer freight to Melbourne actually oheaper than railage on the same flßh. from, the BJufß to >Dunedin and twice as cheap as from the Bluff to Ohristohurob. The demand in Dunedin and* Cbristohuroh was very limited, on account of the population audi buyers being unwilling to pay the price withi railage added. Oysters could be shippod to. Australia for half the amount of railage charged by the Government from the JBiuE to Dunedin, and at one-fourch of the cost of railage from the Bluff; to Gbrietohurch. The Ghrißtchuruh supply was rndfctly dependent upon, rail-borne fish,. and in many cases tne railage charged' was actually more than the value' of the fish retail. What the Premier should do was to> remove the duty upon everything used by flßbermon, in following tbejr vocation. Mr. Luurenson.. M.EJ.Ki, recently went on a deerstalking expedition: in> • Central Qtago< He reports that the great drawbaok to the country, from a sheep-owner's-point of view, is the rabbit pest. "One station through which, we passed," said Mr Laurenson, "paid' £6oooto trappers last and sent* down for shipment over 600j000 rabbifcskinsv The morning I came down thO' Central' line,, one man was sending away, as the. result of only two nights' trapping,. 6;000 rabbits- from Amakau station to Dunedin. The country simDly swarms with: vast floods of rabbits. When: going along the roads they start up in hundreds beneatn your very feet. From a of view it is a- waste of powder and shot to shoot them, aa> you could "bag them'by. hundreds."