TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8337, 21 January 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The result of the stokers' riots at Portsmouth (England), it is anticipated, will be that more use will be made of "floating barracks," and that fewer men will be kept on shore. Naval life and discipline are totally against. what is termed "naval soldiering," or barrack life. Employment has to be invented to keep shore brigades occupied, and in the meantime they are lost to the service and go rusty. The proposal advanced is to quarter most of the shore menon board the ships in home ports, which are in commission in reserve, and have only two-fifth crews on board. The surplus numbers would be put ashore when a vessel proceeded to sea for periodic cruis--1 ing. It is proposed to use the' new home fleet for this purpose, and ! also to press into the service all old ships in harbour. Concerning wireless telegraphy, Chambers' Journal (England) writes: Though in its decade of active existence much has been done to free I the new; system from the reproach ; that its messages are incapable of I direction into any given channels, very much more still remains to be done before a wireless communication will Have that privacy and freedom from interference which a cablegram possesses. But it has come to pass that the very fault which constitutes its greatest weakness from the ordinary telegraphic point of view is a valuable virtue in another direction. A ship in distress sends a message for help all oyer the waters, knowing nothing as to who 1 may pick' it up. - All- other vessels in the vicinity which are equipped with the apparatus will get that message, and probably some will be able to help. ' Again, the latest meteorological observations and deductions, with forecasts of storms to be expected, are sent out at random, "as it were, from various stations 7 All ships within some, hundreds of miles receive the warnings, and re-issue them on their own account, to be picked up in turn by vessels beyond the range of the original message, and so in a short time the warnings are flashed all over the navigable seas, and something is added to the safety of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, which some may think is even better than the secret transmission of information regarding the prices of stocks and shares. ' ■ / ■ The New South Wales Premier (Mr Carruthers)is apprehensive lest a misconstruction should be put upon his utterances at Blayney with respect to the future borrowings of New South/Wales. He had no intention of giving the impression that the State would never have to go to the London market for money, but what he desired to emphasise was that future loans ought to be confined to j what is required, in the, way of redeeming existing loans as they fall due. He thinks that all borrowed money for future public works can easily be raised within the State. "What I. want to convey," Mr Carruthers said, "is that no fresh loan need ever be placed in England for fresh works. In this State there is sufficient money to provide for that. Our revenue is large enough to provide for the cost of a portion of the public works, and the balance required can; be raised by local loans. Undoubtedly we will have to make arrangements for renewal of loans in London." The Labour Journal, issued on Saturday, states that business.in Auckland is very brisk, and if anything better than in preceding months. At Christchurch the retail trade is reported to be in a satisfactory condition. The large establishments state that business done is quite up to previous years, others again complain of a scarcity of money, and say that trade has, not come up to their expectations. There are a variety of reasons given. Some say that, expecting a great influx' of people during the Exhibition season, they stocked rather heavier than usual, and now find they are not doing the business they expected; others are of opinion that the money is going into the Exhibition, and they are left to wait for payment of current accounts, as a reason for the scarcity of money. To the casual observer there seems a lack of the activity that is usual at this season of the I yeaiv The Dunedin trade generally ' has been brisk during the past month, and, compared with the same period of last year, the volume of business transacted appears to be an improvement, though it is distinctly noticeable that there exists a scarcity of cash, which may be accounted for by the fact that many people are making preparations for visiting the Exhibition, and are husbanding whatever spare capital they may possess towards that end, thus causing a shortage amongst local tradespeople.