TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8160, 18 June 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

It was aunounoed recently that Lady Warwick bad sold her jewels in order to provide funds for the Socialist oauae at the last general election. In reply to questions on that subjeot, Lady Warwick says that her letter, from which the above news was taken, was personal to the gentleman to whom she sent it—Mr Wiltshire. It was not intended for the press; but it is a fact that she has not a single personal jewel left. She fails to see whac conoern that is of any one but herself. Her contribution, she adds, was but a drop in the ocean of Tory and Liberal gold poured out at the election. "The Socialist cause," saya Lady Warwick, "is not affeotud by any individual. Nothing can stent the flowing tide and the world regeneration." The officials of the Independent Labour Party declare that in not one single instance did a penny of Lady Warnick's mouey go to any of their candidates whose elections wwe promoted by the trades unions. Taese officials insinuate that the price of the lady's jewels must have gone to Mr Elyadman's Social Democratic Federation. So strongly impressed was MajorGeneral Oorbin, of the United States Army, during his visit to Australia, with the rifle club system obtaining in Australia, that on his return to Manila, where he is stationed, he sent a communioaton to the Secretary of War on the subject. In the course of his communication, the General says:—"The credit given the Australian contingents in South Africa was largely due to the fact that these men left home fully acquainted with the capacity of their arms. It is worthy of note tbat in New Soutb Wales, with a populaton of about 1,030,000, there wore [ 1,500 competitors at ( their last com [ petition (the N.R.A?meetiug), approximately double the total number of N.S. National meet at N.J, in 1905 representing oar 76,000,000, people. . I regard a man who is a. qualified marksman without any military experience whatever is at least nine-tenths a perfect soldier; and a great national reserve with nine-teenths' perfection for immediate enlistment in the event of a demand for a large number of troops, would add untold strength to the defences of a nation." In the early seventies the Societe Francais du Tonne) Sous-Mariu was incorporated for the purpose of carrying oat the great project of a tunnel beneath the .English channel, and it is only natural that the friendly relations lately established between Great Britain and France should encourage the promoters of «the scheme to make another effort to obtain the necessary sanction of the British Government. At the time of the inception of the work a shaft was sunk on the French side of the Channel at a point about six miles from Calais, and the English termnus was fixed near Dover. A considerable amount of tunnelling was done by the Frenoh Company, but after it had spent about half a million dollars the British Government put a stop 'to the work on the English side, ostensibly for the reason that a tunnel beneath the Channel would destroy the security whiob Great Britain's insular position afforded, and would render her liable to attack by an invading army. Engineers of the Northern railway of France have reoently made investigation of the abandoned works, and found them to be in good condition, and it is said to be probable that the present session of Parliament will witness the introduction of a Bill to permit the work to proceed on the English side.

Ik is not very' surprising, when the faots are considered, that; even people of culture at Home are st often painfully ignorant of colonial history. At Oxford, the most famous of all universities, the curriculum as hitherto dealt with the study of English history only up to the suooession of Queen Victoria. That takes ua in Canada, for instanoe, only to brink of the rebellion, and it deals only with the feeble beginnings of constitutional government in) Australasia, and in South Atrioa it closes the page with the trek of the Dutoh farmers. But this reproach has at last been removed from Oxford. Thanks to the generosity of Mr Diet, the South Afrioan magnate, there is now a Chair of Colonial History, filled by a man well qualified by experience, ability and sympathy to expound to the home-dwellingjyouth the significance of the rise and progress of the British dominions ovreaeas. This Colonial History Chair supplements Mr Cecil Rhodes' great scheme for making Oxford a meeting place for the Teutonic peoples throughout the world. Mr H. E. Bgerton, is the occupant of the new chair. His inaugural leoture was entitled, "The claims of the study of colonial history upon the attention of the University of Oxford." He spoke of the great need of imagination and sympathy in tbe relations between the Home Country and its far-off sister States. The history with which they were concerned, he said, was largely the reuord of failures and blunders. The oause which, more than any other, wrecked their first colonial Empire was the lack of imagination shown by Englishmen at Home.