TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8154, 2 June 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A petition for statutory preference to unionists has been sent to ull the industrial unions in the col ony for signatures, with the objeotof presenting it to Parliament next session. The petition urges that tne local sequence of compulsory conciliation and arbitration is statu, tory preferenoe to unionists, under reasonable conditions, and that conciliation and arbitration must soon become a thing of the past if the Aot is longer tn be deprived of its natural bulwarks, viz., statutory preference to unionists. The petition goes on to say that from end to end of the colony are disheartened almost to the verge of desperation at this preference being so long withheld from- them, and they "earnestly pray that statutory to unionists be made the law of the land, not only as a sheet anohor to industrial conciliation and arbitration, but also as a compensating equivalent to the expensive, wearisome, heartaching responsibilities incurred by registration, and as an equitable recompense in promoting the social well-being and industrial peace of the colony."

The colonial youth is said to be given to the use of slang. But some of our slang words are slang only in the sense that, having gone out of ordinary *use, return again, and are used in such a way as to cause thetc to be classed as vulgar or unauthorised. "The gift of the gab" is-a slang expression, no doubt, but it is good English, and very old, The word Mcafa" had a footing in England Bnd Sootland before the Anglo-Saxons and Danes care with their new speeoh. The word of the Scottish Gaels for mouth was "gab,"- aud the Irish Gaels "cab." In old French "gab" meant a gasoonade or banter. We get the words "gape," "gable," and "gobble," from the Gaelic "gob" and "gab" as well as the word "gable," which means the beak of a house. "On the gad" is another slang term which comes down through all the ohangea of our language from the Irish Gaelic word "gad," which at first signified to rove, but afterwards came to mean pilfer. "Gadding" is both a rovering and a pilfering of time, so that in either sense its derivation is justified. To "get shut of," meaning to be rid of, is classed as local slang in the United States, but it is good English, for all that. "Shoot" or.'fehat" are from the same root, and "to be shut of" was used long ago in England to signify to Joe clear of —to be rid of through having the offending thing "shot' out.' There is even authority, in its use by Shakespeare, for the very modern and very, vulgar American slang expression "fired out," in the sense of being driven out. But it is dear that he used it in a purely figurative sense.

An important statement concerning the treatment of oanoerj is contained in a recent "Lancet," in a synopsis of a paper communicated to £the Royal Belgian Academy by Dr. O. Jaoobe, and Dr. Victor Qeets. These doctors state, as the result of their researches, that "it is practicable to immunise the human organism by means of a series of inoculations of the micrococcus neoformans vaccine, provided these are properly controlled by examinations of the opsonic power of the blood." Statistics are given of 46 cancer oases treated; in this manner, with the following results:— "Cure" maintained after several months, 7; lasting improvement, 12; transient result, 7; no result 11; now under treatment, 9. It is the intention of the Japanese Government to convert Port Arthur into a first-class fortress, and for that purpose it is attaining every nerve to repair the damages to the forts, remount the big guns, and improve upon the plans of its predecessors. If possible it will really make it impregnable from'landward as well as seaward. Meanwhile those foreign merchants who still hai goods and other possessons in

Port Arthur at the time When the fortress fell into Japanese possession are busily engaged in identifying their property and removing it to Dalny. When all this foreign impedimenta is removed Port Arthur will be sealed to the world as effectually as Yokosuka, Kure or Sasebo —Japan's three great naval arsenals.

Strawberries and cream grown together on a plant—this is the remarkable new fare plaoed before its readers by an American journal, which in charily we shall leave nameless. Mr Alonzo Murphy, of Morristown, New Jersey, we are told, claims tu have achieved] this remarkable feat, and he hones to be able to furnish the fruit shopsjtbia summer with strawberries and cream direct from the hand of nature. Mr Murphy, being anj imaginative farmer, dreamed that he could accomplish this by a judicious; crossing of the milkweed and the strawberry. Lust autumn he grafted several strawberry plants on the milkweed. One grew sturdily close by Mr Murphy's kitchen range, and was in full fruitage when, alas! the fire went out and it succumbed to the cold. Mr Murphy says that each strawberry when examined was found to contain a quantity of cream, varying from a few drops to a teaspoonful, depending on the size of the berry. He believes he will have a large supply ready for the summer strawberry season.

. la an interview with a newspaper representative in Sydney rrior to leaving for Melbourne, Mr Seddon referred indirectly to the communications concerning alien immigration reoently made public, "I'here was a dispatoh of a few mouths ago, and there had been communications still more recently," he said. "I caa only indicate their nature by saying that they had reference to our alien legislation which were of a kind to ocoasion very serious uneasiness in the minds of ill who believe that we should have absolute oontroi of the immigration to our shores. The self-governing colonies claim the absolute right to say who shall, and who shall not, come here; but 1 have no hesitation in saying that there has been a tendency on the part of the British Government to question that right, on several occasions pointed communications having been addressed to our Australasian Governments by the Colonial Offloe. The sooner it is recognised that this is our affair, and that we intend to jealously guard our rights to keep the race pure, the better for all concerned. I speak for New Zealand, and I think Australians are with me, in saying that there can be no bending on this question."