TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8210, 14 August 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

"Tb' j inspection of fruit at tbe porN of ,entry in Western Australia," said Mr F, Lowes (late Assistant Government Entomologist of that State) "is altogether too stringent. Apples are) condemned if only 15 per cant, in a case are found to contain codliu moth. It seems to me a wanton waste to destroy whole consignments of fruit in ! fiat fashion preventing it going to t!m market, and raising the prioe of whHt, is left to the consumer in an inordinate degree. In Adelaide there are not nearly so many fruit shops as in the western towns, but tbe fruit displayed is of much hotter quality, crisper and sweater. The fruit inspection in the Perth markets is severe. If a single fruit fiy is found the whole case in wh>ch it is discovered is at once incinerated. Much more fruit would go from the eastern States to the west if the quarantine regulations were not so stringent. We had tj pay Is to Is 6d per clo;-:on for bananas over there."

The visit of the Smperor William to Vienna is a symptum of the importance wDich must be attached to the Austro-llungarian difficulty. The disruption of Austria would sadly complicate the Kaiser's present task of government. , ''The balance of religion," says tbe London Daily Mail, "would turn against Protestant Prussia, and the claim of the Hohenzollerns to tbe Imperial Crown might be destroyed. The Hapaburgs would not readily agree to become merely Kings ol Hungary, and, as Bismarck realised, there may bo no room for both Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs to live together under the same sceptre—to' say nothing of rival oapitals like Vienna and Berlin." As is further pointed out, th<3 visit of the Kaiser shows, however, that there is a very close understanding between the present beads of these families—an under standing which was illustrated at Algeoiras by Austria's support of German diplomacy.

The serious condition of the Qer man colonial administration both s home and in more than one of tb< ooloniea (writes the London Timei correspondent) has Jong beea i matter of general knowledge, al though the authorities have don< their best to prevent tbe details o: the soandals from leaking oat. Ii the case of Berr von Pustkamer, ii is pointed oat that be had had ai exceedingly bad reoord in Togoland and that the Colonial Department cannot have been ignorant of tb< way in which he was conducting himself in the Oameroons. Witt regard to the state of the Oolonia Department it is pointed out thai "there had for a long time been i manifest absence of discipline foi wbioh no parallel could be founri in another .Government office," anc that ''the reasons for this disorgani sation are partly to be found in th< origin of German colonial enterprise in which adventures and adventurer! played a considerable part, with con sequenoes which are still making themselves felt." This situation wit also have a serious bearing upon th< future.

According to the New York Herald, the important legislation which President Eoosevelt has succeeded in obtaining from Congress included*. —.(1) A Railway Kate BUI, but with provision for review by the Courts of the findings of the Inter-State Commerce Commission; (2) thorough Federal inspection of packing bouse plants in Chioago, as a result of the expopure of unsanitary conditions; (3) provision for the construction of a look type of canal through the Isthmus of Punama; (4) non-im-munity Bill for trusts and corporations alleged to be illegal; (5) 25,000 dollars a year to pay his travelling expenses while on tours through country; (6) confirmation of tbe appointment of B. P. iiarnes, former assistant secretary to the President, as postmaster at Wash ington. What he has failed to obtain includes:—(l) Tbe Philippine tariff measure, wbidh the Executive was anxious to have passed; (2) tbe Santo Domingo treaty, nhiob it is now believed will be defeated; (3) specifiu laws for tbe puipose of preventing corruption at elections; (4) modification of the present laws excluding Chinese from emigrating to this oountry; (5) immediate construction of a 20,000-ton battleship for the navy; (6) direct Federal control of and supervision over life insurance companies.

Mr Crober, chief of tbe New York Fire Brigade, is, we learn from an American paper, on duty 24 hours in the day, seven days in the week, 52 weeks in the year, with tbe exception of an occasional absence from Friday until Monday during the months of July and Augaefc, most of whioh time he spends in a flatboat off Good Ground, Jj.l., hia summer home. In New York he is never out of direct communication with the fire alarm more than a very few minutes at a time. At his officio in the headquarters building, where he spends the morning, he is, of course, close to the instrument, though bo is seldom called away to a fire. During his tour of inspection that occupy the afternoon he goes from one engine house to another, seldom taking as much as 10 minutes' time betwee'i stations, in each of •vhioh every alarm is registered. At his night headquarters, in Great Jones Street, he spends his evenings and sleeps over the gong during those hours that he is not aotually at a fire or on his way to one. He takes bis meals at a hotel within thrie minutes of the Great Jones Street station, and in telephonio communication with it. An extraordinary thing about this extraordinary man is that, in spite of his arduous labours he averages only tour or five hours' sleep out of the 2i. Although he is frequently at a fire all night, he never goes to bed in the daytime or even so much as lies down, 15 minutes' sleep sitting in his chair before his desk giving him all the rest he finds essential, although he must of necessity be the most wide-awake man in New York, since tbe laok of the complete cotnmand of any of his faculties may at any time result in disaster.