TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8283, 10 November 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Id reply ta a question asked in tbe House of Commons as to the amount of white labour now employed on tbe Rand mines, it bas been officially annouuoed that while the number of Chinese labourers bas been inoreasing.the number of whites has been steadily reduced. Between April and September of this year there was an increase of 398 Chinese coolies at work in tbe mines, end during tbe same period a decrease of white labour amounting to 1,000. One of the chief arguments used to reconcile the British public to tbd admission of Chinese into the Transvaal w«s the assertion emphatically made and constantly repeated that the more Chinese there were ou the Rand tbe more whites would be needed to supervise and manage them. The influx of the Chinese, we were assured, would mean a large and steady inorease in tbe number of whites employed in the mines. No une who bad studied the question impartially could possibly have been impressed by such an argument; but the figures we have quoted show how completely this confident prediction has been falsified. The influx of the Chinese must necessarily mean the displacement of white labour; and the steady growrb of "unemployment" among tbe white population on the Kand is a significant commentary upon the worthlessness of the arguments by which the advocates of this iniquitous policy have striven to bolster it up.

Tuo headmasters of the Auokland State schools have just published what may be termed a manifesto against the pupil teacher system as carried on in this colony, it is, they say, a means of supplying cheap labour, and adopted in the first instance to obeapen the cost of education it has long been out of date. The detects of the system have been felt for many years and have sc increased under the recent regulations which permit matriculated candidates who sbcvo as pupil-teachers for two years only that headmasters all over the colony are urging some reform, while the E.iu oatinal institute has advocated the abolition of She system altogether. There is indeed much need for a change. As schools are staffed at present, pupil teachers mast be placed in charge of classes which in some oasflp comprise fifty ohildran. Lessons before and often after school hours, attendanoe at oollege lectures, at Saturday and at School cf Art Glasses, and daily private study, combine to make such demands upon a pupil teach er's time and enerpy that the inter esls of the children suffer and the teacher leads a life of white slavery.

A bigner| standard of scholarship is' rigbly required nowadays from candidates, but the day etill contains only twenty four hours, and the neoessary increased application, involving longer hours of study is being felt severely.

When Mr Ha mar Greenwood went to Canada a few weeks ago Mr Winston Churchill gave him a letter urging him to try to oonvinoe his friends and kinsfolk in Canada that tbe advent to power of a Liberal Government in England did not "imply any weakening in tbe earnest "and vigilant efforts of tbe Colonial "Office to render the colonies every "legitimate service—military, diplo"matio, or commercial, that may be "in our power." Actions speak louder than words,'and a whole sheaf of letters filled with protestations of this kind will not hide from tbe eyes of the aolonial publio the significance of what has taken place in regard to tbe New Hebrides. We seem to be getting back into the bad old rut in which Liberal Governments floundered along in the past—first, undue economy in regard to the navy, tbereby reducing England's power to make herself respected; next a disposition to make "graceful concessions'" in response to more or less pressure on the part of foreign Powers. These concessions have generally been :nade, as in connection with tbe New Hebrides, at the expense of outlying colonies, on the principle, we suppose, that any outcry they may make is too far off to be heard at Home.

The recent army manoeuvres in Pranoe hßve dearly demonstrated,, among other things, that the French soldier in endurance under the roost harassing conditions is not excelled by even the Japanese. In the tropical heat which baa aooompanted the manoeuvres the French soldier has showed little fatigue even after long and forced marches, while the remarkable enthusiasm of every man engagei, even the reservists, has impressed itsel! as noteworthy upon all foreign observers. This year's manoeuvres have been as far as passible "real war." The problems solved have been those what would actually confront fighting forces upon tbe actual field of battle, in a measure the operations have embraced tbe most difficult tests of the lessons of tbe recant Russo-Japanese conflict At Langres, for instanoe, the garrison and siege artillery have, put into effcofc the lessons ol' Port Arthur. The soene of the manoeuvres lies forty miles north of Paris and has had as its scope a district bounded on the north by the forest of (Jompeigne. The manoeuvres have shown without question that the French army was never in better condition than this year. ' For the last few years the manoeuvres have been more like play, and have heen marked with but little enthusiasm by either the officers or men. This year, thanks to the truculent attitude of the Kaiser before the Algeoiras conference, thiDga have been different. The scare which France received then made tier realise very olaarly bo* unprepared she was for war, and that this unpreparedness is overcome has been convincingly shown by the manouevres.