TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8125, 26 April 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The Taranaki Honld, in advooafeiug local government reform, saya "in the Taranaki oonnty there are uo fewer than sixteen Road Boards, one of them having jurisdiction over sixteen ratepayers, and another having a rate revenue in 1904-5 of £2l. About eighty members of these Boards, with, we suppose sixteen clerks, some paid and others, perhaps, doing the work gratuitously, afe ldoking after the roads under their control. There is a Harbour Board— the Waimakariri— in the South Island which has a revenue of £lO to be administered by five men, and cargo to the amount of 270 tons in a year to deal with. Something between the olil Provincial Governmenfsystem and the present cumbersome system of overlapping of authorities is required, but one thing is certain that members of Parliament are not competent to devise a good workable measure.

The Ohriatchuroh morning papers are very severe on the Trades and Labour Conference for its resolution advocating disturbance of lease in perpetuity. The Tim«.s characterises it as "advocating unmitigated robbery," and says: "If the conference had carried Mr Paul's compensation amendment there might have been something to be said for the confiscation proposal, but it should have nothing to do with honesty in its mode. The confiscation must be outright. Might is right, and brigandage is the fashion of the moment. It is difficult to be patient with men who believe that the State has the right to resume land without paying compensation. Principles like theee, if they are once brought into operation, cannot oe restricted in their application. If the State oould resume leasehold land without paying for it there would be no reason why it should not take freehold laud without paying, and, if the Stake could do this thing, it could give local bodies the same right, it is certain nothing will more prejudice the public against labour in politios than this advocacy of the violation of a State contract."

Several meteorologists have arrived almost simultaneously at the conclusion that there exists a grand solar cycle of nearly 300 years, within which excessive rains and droughts and other terrestrial phenomena are associated in some countries. Mr Kingsmill, writing from Shanghai, states that the reports of famines iu the northern provinces of China were much the worst at the ends of the seventh, tenth, thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and this experience of disastrous drought has been repeated at the end of the nineteenth in China, India and Australia. In Britain also chere liavejbeen seven years in succession of deficient rainfall. The more exaot cycle is 299% years, which makes twenty-seven of the smaller recognised cycle of 11.085 years. The worst famines or periods of great scarcity recorded in Great Britain were in the years 272, 306 (Scotland), 310, 739, 823. 954 (lasting four years), 1087, 11J3, 12E1, 1315, 1335, 1353, 1438, 1565, 1748, 1795, and 1801.

Canada is about to coin its own moaey. The Mint, which has been for some time in course of construction at Ottawa, will shortly bw ready for work. It will be a branch of the Itoyal Mint in London, and as such the staff will consist exclusively of officials sent out from England. Canada bears the cost of erecting the building, and will contribute a yearly sum not exceeding £15,000 for its operation Although the Dominion has been a gold producer for many years Canadians have no distinct gold coinage. When the Royal Mint waa too busy with its own currency to mint Bilver and copper pieces for the Dominion, the work was handed over to the Arm of Heaton, of Birmingham, which has been in existence Binoe the'period of the early Georges. A silver piece that cornea from the Heaton Mint can be detected by the letter "H." under the Royal effigy. In addition to sovereigns from Britain, Cauada gets eagles from the United States. Dominion notes are made at Ottawa by a private firm under Government oontract.

A curious position was diauloaed when the Conciliation Board aat, on Tuesday, at Wellington, to hear claims made by the Wellington Coaobworkers' Union in a case embracing the wDole of the industrial district. The ohairman (Mr P. J. O'Regan), said that the board would nrst deal with the immediate district, and ait at outside places later. Employers from remote towns stated that they had received notice to attend the present sitting and "the chairman replied that the notice must have been sent to them by mistake of an officer who was not a member of the board, t?hioh was not reponaible for the occurrence. Mr W. A. W. Gienfell asked whether there was any provision for recouping the employers mentioned for expenses entailed by their attendance at Wellington, and Mr O'Regan replied that the board could not take tbe responsibility in the matter. The mistake had been a unfortunate one, which the board would do its best to modify. It would also try to avoid having the mistake repeated.