TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8152, 31 May 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Mr Wilfrid Ashley, M.P., has added to the many accusations which are accumulating against the London County Council. He charges that body with literally killing time (says the London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus) According to Mr Ashley, the great electric power station which the Oounoil has built on the line of meridian, and oloae to Greenwich Observatory, is interfering with the calendar. The vibration from the engines, and the disturbance of the atmosphere caused by the multitude

of eleocrio naves, as well as the smoke, interfere with the instruments of the Observatory. "They have become erratic and unreliable." Mr Ashley foresees tremendous trouble in the future—* inaccuracies in the nautical almanac, no regular fixed time for people to set their matches by, the missing of trains, and a general distraction among all business men.

According to the Waikato Times, probably few people realise the amount of road work that has been carried out in the King Country during the last twelve months by the Roads Department, and fewer still reougnise the engineering difficulties whioh are attached to this class of work, when the nature of the country itself is taken into consideration. During the last year fifty-four miles of new dray roads have been formed, and 144 miles of new bridle roads made, giving a total mileage of new formation of close on 200 mile 3. The bridge work has also been particularly heavy, no fewer than twenty-eighc bridges of over 30ft span having been built, which does not include the smaller bridges under that measurement, and which are of course, muoh more numerous. The mileage of dray roads Improved during the term mentioned comes to fifty-six and bridle roads to eleven. By "improved" is meant widening, cuttings and metalling. The total length oI roads maintained comes to over 500 miles viz., 327 miles dray roads, and 185 miles bridle toads, while 165 miles have been laid out.

A warning note touching the overcrowding of the professions was struck byMrS. Solomon, barrister, at the meeting of the Navy League at Duaedin last week. He said: "It has occurred to me that while the principal object of the Navy League is to encourage by every legitimate meana the maintenance of the navy to its fullest co efficient of usefulness, impressing this necessity on all, they would be fully performing their duty to the Empire and also to the young men of this colony if they pointed out what the navy offered as a means of employment. This should be pointed out aline to the scholars of the primary and secondary school*, and to the students at the universities. If that were done, then, when the professions become overcrowded—as 1 fear they will be —a number, at least, will recognise that his Majesty's navy presents a suitable field for their efforts—a field where industry and ability are rewarded by excellent salaries, a field where courage, generosity, «nd the best impulses of life are encouraged and acknowledged by promotion and wlaere the greatest ambitions may be gratified. 1

The anoient and 1 Little England idea that the colonies are a millstone round the neok of Britain is not yet fully expluded. It lingers tenaoiously in the columns of the Liberty Review. "There is more liberty in Madagascar," says the Review, "than in New South Wales. The only privilege . the Mother Country obtains from Australia is to be the surety on which Australia borrows, and to be responsible for her debts. That debt is £227,657,663. Further, ww are allowed to guard their shores though not necessarily to land. For their part they neither pay us nor thank us. New Zealand is the same. Compare, then, New South Wales and France. In France we can land more easily, we are less interfered with after we have landed, our labour is freer, the tariff on our goods is no worse, and it is less vigorous; we need not guard her shores, we need not share her debt, and we are not, as a nation, implicated in the indignities suffered by the children of our Empire, and by the injustices of the legal Fr° ce <i urG ' See, then, the advantages of the flag! What do we f get from Australia, save an occasional team of cricketers, footballers, and other 'flannelled fools' to compete with our champions at home? On the other hand, France, and Yankeeland, also, favour us with specimens of the genus athlete asking us either to unfurl our standard or share their debt, or retain the athlete. What does Australia give us that we cannot obtain somewhere else? Their wine is far from tempting, there labour laws are poisonous."

The world's ooeoa crop amounted to 146,552 tons in 1904, or 16 per cent, over that of 1903 according to figures published by the German Oonoa Trade Journal. The production of ooeoa has steadily increased since 1901, when it was 105,720 tons. Ecuador, which is the largest cocoa-producing country (28,443 tons in 1904) showed a 22% per cent, inorease; Brazil, with 23,160 tons, made 11% per oent. increase; St. Thomas furnished 20,526 tons, or a 4% per oent. decrease. Trini dad, which increased 25 per cent., to 18,574 tons, formerly shipped the entire arop to London, but now ships largely to Hamburg, Havre, and New York by German and other steamers. Sao Domingo made a great stride in cocoa production, advancing 74 per oent., to 13,557 tons. Venezuela was the sixth coantry in cocoa production, advancing 4 per cent., to 13,048 tons. Grenada was seventh, with 6,226 tons, a Vyi per oent. increase, all of it going to England. The Gold Coast, in Africa, made the greatest inorease in the ooooa orop of 1904, marketing 5,687 to&s, or 148 per cent, over the 1903 croD.