TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8168, 26 June 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The proposed purohase by the Government of the small pataka, or Maori food storehouse, now in the Auckland Museum, for removal to the Wellington Museum would, says tbe Auokland Uerald, remove one of the most interesting features of the fine Maori collection, which is one of Auckland's proudest possessions. The house would be very difficult to replace, for it is doubtful if there is another in existence possessing ins characteristics and associations It was carved so far back as 1825, although the front gable boards were evidently carved at a later date. The bouse stood on the shores of Lake Rotoiti, and belonged to the Arawa chief. Haerae Huka, who murdered the chief of the Ngatihuaus, in oonsequence of which particularly sanguinary battles raged between the two tribes from 1835 to 1840. The decoration of the house is conspicuously Maori in feeling, there being no trace in the artist's work of any European influence, whioh are perceptible in carvings of a later date. The house was the property of the late Judge Fenton, and was lent by him to the Museum. Its loss to Auokland would be irreparable, and the Herald hopes that the citizens of Auokland will allow, no financial consideration to hinder its retention.

Has the Wagner cult bad its day? Mr Kudolph Aronson, the wellknown New York manager, who recently arrived in London after securing Signor Leoncavallo and the famous Scala orchestra from Milan for a tour in the United States, declares that Wagner is no longer popular with Americana. "Italian and French operas are now strongly In favour witb the Amerioan public," said Mr Aronson to a Daily Mail representative "People are tir&d of the 'Nibelnngen' cycle, while 'Parsifal,' 'Die Walkure,' 'Tristan and Isolde,' and other works are quite out of favour. 'Tannhauser' and 'Lohengrin' 'still hold a place in public affeotion, but there is no douDt that German opera has lost its hold. Americans a*e turning eagerly, and witb fresh interest, to the works of Massenet, Thome, Pucoini, Francetti, and others of 1 the modern French and Italian schools."

The Trade Disputes Bill brings once more to ihe front the important question of the interests of the trade unions, and the moment is therefore opportune for taking stock of the great and growing influence of these unions and for estimating their position in the industrial pro gress of the country. There are over 10,000,000 males in England who may be placed in what is commonly called the industrial classes. In agrioulture there are over 1,000,000 employed; in building and similar work there are another 1,000,000; engaged in manufacturing food and drink there are 750,000; and in mining ooal and other minerals, in engineering works of different i bind, and In general labour there are nearly 2,000,000 more occupied. Other trades account for the rasfc. Yet out of this total of 10,000,000 there are not 2,000,000 who'have joined the trade unions. At the present moment the total is about 1,900,000, and during the last three years, for which we have a reliable record, the number has steadily declined by some 75,000 members. This means that as a whole the male industrial class is rtill unorganised, and that the trade unions only represent a minority of the working men. But if this is true of the working man, still more true is it of the working woman. As a class, this naturally weaker type of worker is still hopelessly unorganised. For out of the 4,000,000 women) and (scarcely 1,000,000 of whom are married) not more than 125,000 have seen fit to enrol tnemselves under the trade union banner.—Daily Telegraph.

The April number of the Atlantic Monthly opens with a sensible artiol-\ by Mr Willard GileH Parsons on "Education—-Why it Fails to Hit the Mark." The writer divides the aims of public education into oultural and vocational, the aim of cultural studies being appreciation of taste, while the result of vocational study should be skill—skill to produce. The confusion of these aims, he says, is the main oause of the present blindness of education. Nearly every school course aims at both at once, and therefore misses altogether: "Vocational training,"he writes, "is too scholastic, too much shut away from the world at "large. They must look out into the world and see what it wants of them. The oultural courses, on the other hand, do not give tiue, vital taste." Of the study of Shakespeare, for Instance, Mr Parsons says: "The scientific, minute study of Shakespeare, the use of his plays as material for grammatical analysis, philogioal investigation, historical research, belongs' only to tbe last years of the college and to the graduate school. The proper study , of Shakespeare in the high school is to feel, to read Shakespeare, see Shakespeare, play Shakespeare. This might awaken love. It would certainly result, in the high school, In a truer, broader acquaintance; in the college, in a truer, sounder oritioism; on the stage, in a truer and more frequent presentation."