TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8321, 29 December 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Some remarkable figures were given by Captain Deasy, one of the foremost figures in the English motoring world, recently. Captain Deasy stated that the capital invested in the British motor industry is £12,000,000, and that the value of British cars manufactured during the first nine months of 1906 exceeded £3,000,000. About a quarter of a million of men are employed in England in the manufacture and driving of motor cars, representing an annual outlay of some £15,000,000, In the first nine months of this year the imports of foreign cars decreased £55,000. The wonderful figures for Great Britain may be supplemented by those of the French trade, the total output for the nine months of 1906 being £3,650,000. France exported motor cycles to the value of £IO,OOO. The advocates of universal penny postage in England have not failed

to draw the attention of the British Postmaster-General and the British public to the recent announcement that the United States Government has agreed to accept letters from New Zealand at the penny rate. The British Post Office, however, main-' tains its previous attitude. Replying recently to a question in the House of Commons, the Postmaster-General said he was not in a position to make any proposals to the United States Post Office for' the establishment of penny postage. When asked < further whether the question was under consideration, Mr Buxton replied, "only in the sense that the question is one which largely depends on how much money is applicable to the various postal reforms."

Mr Charjes J. Glidden, who is engaged in the longest motor tour om record, and who, in his travels,, visited Masterton, has made a fresh start from Boston in his self-imposed task of driving 50,000 miles in fifty different countries. Mr Glidden, who is accompanied by his wife, has so far driven 33,000 miles in 35 countries. His present tour will be confined to America, and will be of 7,059 miles. Of this distance 1,757 miles will be covered by road and 5,032 on rails., For the latter the rubber-tyred wheels will be removed and steel-flanged wheels substituted. Mr Glidden has received the special permission of the railway authorities to use the railway lines. A few years ago Mr Glidden covered 1,200 miles on the Canadian Pacific railway in his car.

Good luck proverbially never comes singly, and the recent phenomenal increases in the productionvof butter, beef, and other produce throughout Auckland province (says the Auckland Herald) is acompanied by an equally pleasing increase in the output of gold. During the past three weeks nearly £112,000 worth of gold has been won in Auckland province, being £7,500 more than that obtained in the corresponding period of 1905. As this brings the winnings of 1906 up to over £1,213,000, being an increase of £182,000 over the output for 1905 —with the-heavy Waiotahi December returns still to come —it is anticipated that 1906 will exceed 1905, in gold output, by no less a sum that £200,000. The province has thus placed the "million mark" well behind it, and we may soon be looking forward to a year which will double that amount. If the Thames deep levels were explored by Government assistance the glories of that languishing field might again be revived, while if systematic geological investigations were made there is every reason to suppose that new fields would be s6on opened up.