TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8248, 1 October 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The Congress of Sooial Democrats at Maunhoirn is a highly significant sign of the times. That a gathering of 10,000 advocates of a policy deliberately ami ostentatiously opposed to the Imperialists ideals of the Kaiser should be permitted in Germany, is in itself a remarkable indication of the success that the socialists have already achieved, even in the etrouguold of continental despotism Hat the CongrßQ9 stands for n great deal more than the eichty-two Sooial Democrats in the German Keichslag or the three million voters who sent thorn tbeie. Representatives of the workers of all civilised nations aie gathered together iu this uuamblage to compare gains and leases , to afford mutual sympathy and help, and to organiso a policy for the future. The most impiossive faot about continental Socialism today is that it is cosmopolitan. For in spite of the portentous names that some of the socialistic organisations have assumed, the Sooial Democracy advocated w by Hebel in Germany, and by Jaures in ' France, does not aim at rtiuah more than the workers of New Zealand and Australia have already secured for themselves. It is true that the theory of Sooial Democracy involves the nationalisation of most of the sources of public wealth and the extension of the functions of Government far beyond the limits hitherto fixed for them in the Old World. Hut Bebel and his friends regard those objects as an ultimate

ideal, to be realised only in some distant future. Meantime they keep steadily before their eyes as their immediate end the amelibratiou of the oouditioa of the workers by every means.than come within the soope of practical politics. Tho great majority of the Sooial Democrats, are working for- fctwa results that we have already seen 'secured bj Detroeratio Liberalism, in these colonies. New Zealand, one must confess, would find it hard to compete seriously with Canada i,n her endeavour to attraot immigrants of all sorts, says the Lyttelton Times. A few men with modest capital are drawn to this oolony year by year by reports of its natural institutions, but we are half the round globe away from the Mother Country, and we have no vast traots of virgin land to offer tu settlers on nominal terms. We asked for a thousand navvies a few months ago, ana obtained men of all trades and occupations but very few of the olasß most urgently desired. Canada advertises, not for a thousand navvifts, but for ten thousand decent men. "Send ua ten thousand decent men in a body to-morrow," said the Saperinteodent of Immigration to a London journalist, "and we'll find work for them within a fortnight." The Weetern provinces have all Commissioners of Immigration and State Departments attracting men and distributing them, and the Canadian immigration system is the best organised in the world.

One of the newest industries In the United States is ostrich farming. Those who have watched its oourse believe that the time will soon come when the American ostrioh, farms will be able to supply the entire demands of the country. More than half the number of ostriohes in the United States are the progenoy of a single |.air of ostriches obtained in 1891 to start a farm iu Arizona, which is considered the best section of the United States for ostrich farming. In the Salt River Valley of Arizona climatio conditions are favourable to the health of the birds. The all-the-year-round production of alfalfa there affords t> continuous supply of green food, for one acre of alfalfa produces sufficient forage to main tain four full-grown birds. Experts declare that the feathers produced in America fully equal those coming from Africa, and, moreover, are broader and finer, though not as strong as the feathers of the wild birds.

hir Norman Lookyer has contributed to the London Times a most interesting paper on the age and use of the mysterious stone oiroles in England, which have exoited and baffled tho ouriosity of generations of archaeologists. The general conclusions drawn are (1) that these stones were the haudiwork of astronomer priestß,familiar with Egyptian methods and soieuoe, who began work in Cornwall in 2300 b.c.; (2) that they were in full operation for 1,000 years before the arrival in England of any Aryan or Celtic tribes. If these conclusions are accepted, thu question arises whether the burialsfound in several of the circles do not belong to ;a much later period than that of those who raised them. The deolination of the principal stars has been worked ouc in tables by scientists as fai back as 4000 b.c.,, and, from the alignments of eight circles in the West of England, Sir Norman Loekyer draws the conclusion that Arcturus was used by the priests as a clock star to watch the flow of time during the night, and deduces the dates of the oiroles themselves. They fall, he says, between 2330 b.c. and 1420 b.o. Stouohenge is assigned to 1950 b.c, and the latest of all, Longatone, to 1039 b.c.