TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8272, 27 October 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The unanimous SDirit with which the Defence Act Amendment Bill went through the House of Representatives after the reform in organisation which it institutes has so long been delayed by the Administration is a telling indication of the uneasiness pervading the colony as to the effectiveness of our national defences. No Department of the public service has suffered more keenly in the past than that of Defenoe through in difference and neglect, says the Auukland Herald. It says a great deal for the spirit of our young men and for the patient work of the responsible officers of our Defenoe Forces that, in spite of this and of the discouragement felt by nil energetic officers, the volunteering movement should have been so well sustolued. Sir Josehp ' Ward has wisely lost no time in introducing a reform which has long be called for. The Hill provides for a Board of Defence, and though the effectiveness of this body depends upon Its members, we can safely say that with good members its power for good will be very great.

Plans for all buildings in Munich, says Engineering,have to be approved by the Fire Survey Department. The building owner may appeal to the Bavarian Home Office if he has a grievance, and finally he may also appeal to the Minister ot the Interior personally if not fully satisfied. The principal officers of the fire brigade have to pass qualifying examinations in building construction. There is an elaborate code of building regulations in Munich, but many of these regulations only lay down guiding principles, leaving the officials considerable discretionary powers. The Munioh regulations allow the officials of the Building Control and Fire Survey Departments to enter any building at will, and make requisitions for further safety from flro, both from the building point of view and that of their general management, against wbjoh requisitions there is a power of appeal, as described above. Chimneys, continues Engineering, must be swept periodically by public chimney sweeps at a tariff oharge, and the oh'miiey sweep is held responsible if a chimney iu his district remains unswept. An inquest is held on fires if thought necessar.?, irrespective as tu whether there has baou loss of lite or not.

a eabie message on Wednesday rooming announced that the Spanish Government has decided to denounce the Concordat with the'.Vaticau and curb the power of religious associations. We ure not told to what extent this power is to be restricted, but we do not think that anythiug so drastic as the French separation law is proposed. 'I he Roman Catholic Church is the national Chnroh of Spam, and the number of people who belong to other religions is only about 30,000. The the nation to contribute to the support of the clergy, and buildings of the Ohurob, and for this purpose the State expends annually considerably over £1,000,000. The religious communities a»e numerous, and influential. A few years ago they numbered 3,115, with 50,933 tnembors, 5,200 of whom • were engaged in teaching boys of the upper ami middle classes. One authority says that the Governments of the Restoration allowed the Jesuits and religious orders of bDth sexes to spread to an extent without precedeut in the century, and to take hold of the education of more than half of tho youth of bath sexes in all classes of society. The legal oode contains many evidences of the influence of the State religion. There ave several penalties, including Anns, correctional prison, and penal servitude for doliots against the State religion. Blasphemy is punished by imprisonment. The bishops sit in the superior co'inci 1 of edunation, and exercise much influence on the programmes of pubic instruction. Non-Catholics are only permitted the exeroise of their form of worship on condition that iboy do so in private, without any publio demonstration or anuouncent of their servioes.

The New i'ork currespondent of the Daily Express supplies interesting evidence of the extraordinary prosperity which America is now enjoying. Western farm hands, he says, are earning £l2 a month for sb months in the year, and 14s a day dui'ing the rusb of the season. New York clerks and bookkeepers are making £5 5s a week, out of which they pay 25s a week for a six room flat, fitted with every convenience. Telegraphists are paid 15 guineas a month on an average, and experts get 22 guineas. "1 had dinner recently with a telegraphist who lives at Brooklyn in his own house, worth £I,OOO. We had a fbar<ouurse meal, equal to that or the average professional man. His wife and daughters were handsomely dressed, and all are in the habit of tnldng a summer holiday at the seaside. This is a very moderate sam-

pie of the life of people of this class n New York." A Hungarian Jew, who cannot read English lold the writer that be was making a profit of jEB a week by providing the oooupants of sky-scrapers with sharp razors. This man is preparing his son for a university, and ip sending his wife to Hungary for a holiday. An Italian bootblaok, after ten years iu America owns two tenement houses in Jersey City, and is building a third out of the rents.