TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8264, 18 October 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

It will' be temembered that tbe City of Auckland decided to adopt as its method of perpetuating the memory of the late Premier the scheme for tbe davelopmeut of the local Technical College. Towards this the Auckland Savings Bank had already given £IO,OOO, which carries with it an equal Government subsidy. It is hoped by the Seddon Memorial Committee that the atnou t raised will reach in aIJ to £30,000. A preliminary list has been issued, from which it appears that an excellent start was made, nearly £2,000 being given or promised. An anonymous donor gave £2OO, and donations of £IOO each were given by the following:—Tbe Mayor, Mr R. Hobbs, Hon. G. Powlds, Hon. E. Mitoholson, Proprietor Auckland Star, Proprietors Herald, Messrs Smith aud Caughey, J. J. Craig and Co., Jas. Hardie, L. D. Nathan and Co., E. Porter and Co., Leyland, O'Brien and Co., H. M. Sr«eaton and Co., D. L. Muvdook and H. Somerville and Co.

Fraulein Bertha Krupp, who has just baen married to Herr von Boh-len-Halbaob, is the sole proprietress of the famous Krupp Steel Works at Essen, and, indeed, of the town of Essen, with its 250,000 inhabitants. The great Krupp works, wnioh supply Uennany and several other couutries with guns and armour plate, employ upwards of 50,000 men, upon whom some 200,000 persons are dependent. Apart from this huge concern, the young millionairess owns 547 iron mines, situated in different couutries, three coal mines, and numerous quarries, so that altogether she is pst|mated to oontrol the destinies Of 300,000 people. Her grandfather started life as a humble blacksmith, and to-day her income is quite £1,000,000. Though the works are oonduotod on humanitarian lines, and she takes the greatest interest in the welfare of her employees, she is in constant danger, and has to bo well guarded. A special bodyguard of detectives protect her from the attacks of Anarchists and discharged employees, and thß works and her house are guarded by a speoial body of men, nine hundred strong, drilled like soldiers, and well armed. Herr von Bohleu-Hol bach is a penniless young nobleman who oooupied an insignificant post at the Legation at tbe Vatican.

Newspapers which, at the beginning of the Russian revolution, tried to keep a tally of the violent crimes of tho Government officials on the one hand and of the revolutionary parties on the other have long since given up the task in despair. It seems to be impossible to obtain even an approximate estimate of the lives that have been sacrificed during the struggle for freedom. There is no one to keep tbe tally of the Jews massaored, of the workers shot down iu the streets, or of the peasant victims of Cossack justice. Some careful statisticianhas estimated that each "normal," montn sees fifty persons killed and one hundred and fifty wounded in

the streets of Warsaw. One enterprising correspondent did attempt to make a list of the important peisooages killed by revolutionaries, a score of governors, ten generals, thirty leading polioe offloers, and ao forth, but be bad to admit his figures unreliable and incomplete. But the actual statistics of the revolution ean be ignored. Tbe daily reports are suffloieut to show how merrily the game goes on, they're moval" of officials by one side, the fierce repression of political agitation by the other.

We must, we suppose teays the Lyttelton Times) take the re-appoint-meet of the four members of the Legislative Council as an intimation that the Government does not intend to propose any change in tbe constitution of the seoond branch of the Legislature. The Premier bad prepared us for this determination by bis repeated declaration tuat be could see nothing in any of the proposed reforms to recommend it over the nominated system. No one will object to the re-appointmenfc of the fuur gentlemen who have just been continued in the revising chamber. They are, with Mr Jenkinson and Mr Rigg, tbe survivors of tbe twelve Councillors who were nominated by Mr Ballanee fourteen" years ago to oeonre the passage of the Liberal measures that had been delayed on their way to the Statute Book. Three of the "apostles," as they were dubbed by some humourist, are now dead, two have renounced their adherence to the Liberal Party, and one, Mr Jennings, has made his way Into the House of Representatives.