TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8331, 12 January 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A London writer notices the rapidity with which political reputations are made in America, as compared with the slow climbing to power of the English politicians. English politics require a man to be a long time in the public eye before he attains high office; in America a piece of work which appeals to the public will lift a man at once from obscurity to fame. For instance, Mr Hughes, who defeated Mr Hearst for the Governorship of New York, was, eighteen months ago, unknown outside his profession. He was not even a leader of the New York Bar, and was engaged in cases which were seldom mentioned in the papers. Had it not been for the insurance scandals, he would probably have remained comparatively an obscure lawyer to the end of his days. But the scandals caused immense excitement, and his probing of abuses in company management at once made him famous.

Mr Dabadhai Naorongi, whose speeches at the Indian Congress have been reported by cable, is a remarkable person. He is a Parsee —a native of Bombay—and, though over 80, is a man of great activity. He was the first Indian to hold a professorial chair in any leading college of his country,, and the first Indian to sit in the House of Commons, being returned for Central Finsbury in 1892. In India he is regarded as a great man, among his titles being "The Grand Old Man of India,'" ''Patriot of Patriots," "Avatar of Duty," and "The Indian Subject of the King." His birthdays are celebrated with great public enthusiasm, especially in Bombay. One of the great efforts of his life has been to try to do away with cast prejudice, and another was the legalisation of re-marriage of widows. The Indian National Congress arose some twenty years ago out of a movement among the educated native classes of all races and religions, to meet together and discuss their political wants.

One of the most interesting currency reforms which is now receiving the attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the issue of £1 bank notes, says an English paper. At pi'esent the law provides that no English bank note shall have a less yalue than £5, and in this matter England stands alone in the world. Even Ireland and Scotland have their £1 notes. England has not always been without its £1 bank notes, but they were forbidden as long ago as 1776. Before then they were issued in large numbers by the country banks, and in some cases even smaller sums were the limit. In those days many tradesmen were bankers in a small way, and the issue of notes for small amounts by them led to many abuses.

"The flax industry is simply in j its infancy," 1 stated Mr C. J. Ful-I ton, chief fibre expert, to a Lyfcteltofn Times reporter. "No 'one knows what it will develop into at maturity. In 183G Mr John Murray wrote an account of the New Zealand flax industry, and printed it in a book, the paper of which was made entirely of flax. That paper is the nearest imitation of parchment I have ever seen. That is one of the lines of development. Another is in the making of linen and various kinds - of fabric. When the Japanese representatives were here some time ago I took them round some Auckland rope works. I knew that for the last ten or twelve years Japan had been importing ilax, and I asked them what she did with it. The reply was that it was used for making handkerchiefs. This is very suggestive, especially when one remembers that Japan has not had our best quality flax by any means-merely seconds and thirds. We hope to do something, too, in the way of introducing flax milling machinery. At present the machines do not dress the flax in a manner at all equal to hand work. They bruise the fibre too much, and preclude all possibility of the finest class of work. The old Maori process was all hand work, purely and mechanical. They removed the cuticle and much of the fibre, too, which would be loss, but what they did leave was perfectly good and true."