TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8314, 18 December 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

It is aB well that the poblio should have its attontiou drawn to, "The Firearms Act, 1906," which comes into operation on January Ist, 1907. Under this Act no child under 16 years of age must be found in possession of a jzau or pistol or fhearm of any,sort, wha*her "going by forcof powder "or not," or ammunition of any description. No person must sell or supply any children under 16 years with artioles of the bind stated; and in either case breaches of the act may be visited with fines ud to £lO, while the arms will bo forfeited. Nothing in the measure applies to any child practising under approved supervision at a properly oonstruated xitle range. The new law may put a check on the pea rifle nuisanoe.

There ia every probability that the representatives ia Australia of the Anglo-American uil Company, a gignntio trust, will be shortly prosecuted by the Federal Government und«r the Australian Anti-Trust Act, in connection with its efforts to eeoure a monopoly by granting rebates to grooers and retail oilmen, who agree not to sell any other oil but that supplied by itself. Preliminary inquiries are now being mßde. On Novombor 29th, the Prime Minister (Mr Deakin) read the following statement on the subjeot;_"We some time ago had a complaint made lo us with reference to the action of an oil firm here. The inquiry was mnde whether this action did not bring the firm within the scope of our Auti Trust Act. 1 referred the matter to the Grown Solicitor twice, and have just reoeived hia second opinion. In this fm aays that the evidence l".id before him is not auffioient, in hia opinion, or, rather, the facts furnished to us are not sufficient, fcr us to take proceedings at, this stage. I have written a letter to the people who called our attention to tbia action of the company, and hava requested thorn to furnish us, If they have it in their possession, with further evidenoe whioh would enable us to sheet homa this charge."

The Bill providing for the supply of meals to ohildreu at the British primary schools, is now likely to become lan; and it is a significant sign of the times that the Liberal majority which has officially disowned "Socialism" should be preuared to support eo "Socialistic" a measnve aa this, even in conservative England. The tendency undoubtedly is to extend the funotions of the State with the object of providing more effectually for the welfare of the individual citizen; and the oase for a free breakfast for hungry school children is so strong at Home that it ssems to require little defence on. abstract ground. Two years ago, before the report of the Special Committee on school meals was published, the Times and other more or less conservative organs, objected that such a scheme would ''pauperise" the masses. But as one of the foremost advocates of free meals in the schools pointed out, the most effectual way of pauperising the masses is to starve the children, "to bring them up under conditions of physical disability, add semistarvation to insanitary surroundings, turn them out into the world defective in body and mind, and so

qualify them to become Daapera themselves and tno fathers and mothers of paupers."

The Dseudo-eaiences of graphology, | palmistry and phrenology have lon«- ! inn olamoured for B hearing in the courts of soieDce, bat have hitherto failed to obtain a fair trial. How ever, Professor Binet, the wellknown Parisian psychologist, has determined to make an elaborate study of these tiu'ee subjects, and give his results to the public. The material so obtained will doubtless be interesting to the investigator in the by-ways of psychology, even if it, contains nothing of a more practical value. Id a volume entitled "Les Revelations de I'Eoriture," published a few months ago the learned professor describes the elaborate series of tests he has already made concerning the value of the so-called science of baud-writing or graphuloKy. The joints towards which he particularly directed bis enquiries were four in number, viz: Oun the (1) ago, (2) box, (3) intelligence, (4) charaoter of the writer be determined from the manuscript? It may at ouoe be stated that although a qualified answer in the affirmative, is given to these four questions, yet! it is admitted that the results are not sufficiently accurate to have scientific value. Whether evidunoe drawn from the charaoter of bandwriting can be admitted in '"ihe law courts depends upon whether evidence can be allowed in which there is the probability of a certain per centage of error.