TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8338, 22 January 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Mr Duncan Stelfox, senior partner in the firm of Onyon, Lake and Company, Manchester, is at present on a visit to Christchurch, and. in an interview made some interesting remarks with reference to the timber trade. Mr Stelfox states that there is a very large demand in England for timber. The Baltic forests, he says, are fast being depleted, and even the Canadian supply is not what it used to be. ' For New Zealand timbers, especially those used in constructive ' works, like totara, and white pine, which is wanted for the making of packing-cases, he is certain there would be a market. Already a large English firm is using New Zealand pahautea, kohekohe, and kawaka, and the top branches of the totara, for the manufacture of lead pencils, which can be made from these native woods 30 per cent, more cheaply than from the usual cedar. Mr Stelfox points out that Sir Joseph Ward, in a speech made soon after his return from England, said that he had been much impressed on his visit to the North of England by the immense industrial population centred around Manchester, and felt sure that if the New Zealand exports were properly handled there a great field would be afforded for the extension of trade. The British House of Commons has just decided that the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act shall apply to domestic servants, and that i any person who employs a domestic j servant will be liable for full compensation to that servant for any mishap ccurring while she is in his employ, even if that be due to wilful disobedience of his ! orders. This provision has naturally excited considerable uneasiness, especially on the ; part of the smaller employers. It is pointed out that for the first time the general public will /find that it,is responsible at law for accidents to its servants, and required to give compensation even when those accidents are due to disregard of 1 rules made for their protection. No prudent man can now neglect to insure against his liability in this respect, and he may in some, cases reI pay himself by keeping a servant less, which will result in each doi mestiejhaving to work harder, and in there being v a smaller body of employment available for this class altogether. "The underlying principle," said the Hon. Dr Findlay, Colonial Secretary and Attorney-General, to a Christchurch Press reporter, "in the proposed legislation in respect both to native and Crown land is the same and that principle is closer productive settlement. Economic waste cannot be permitted if without injustice it can be averted. And the same aim which seeks to make the large holdings in European hands more productive by what has been called the 'bursting-up' policy underlies the proposed legislation in respect of Inative land. I speak with some knowledge of what has followed the closer settlement of our large estates in this colony; and from the bitter contest in the Hatuma case down to the last great contest in the Flaxbourne case, closer settlement has meant enormously increased production from the same area of land. If he is a benefactor who can make two blades of grass grow whereone grew before, it may fairly be claimed that a Government which has done more than this in ultimate effect is not misusing its power or opportunities." _______ Statistics relating to the merchant! navy are always of interest, illus- j trating, as they do, not only the extent of Britain's commercial relation, but the direction of trade from year to year. Tables show • ing the progress of merchant shipping in the United Kingdom and the principal maritime countries during 1905 were issued recently in the form of a Board of Trade Blue Book. One of the most important of these

shows the tonnage of sailing and steam vessels of different nationalities entered and cleared in the foreign trade at ports in the United Kingdom. They show that the. proportion of British to total tonnage, was in 1840, 68.8 per cent; in 1850, 65.1; in 1860, 56.4; in 1870, 68.4; in 1880, 70.4; and in 1890, 72,7. In 1870 Germany's total tonnage was 982,355, and in 1904 2,352,575. The United States vessels registered for oversea trade have a total tonnage of 954,503, but there is another entry of 5,502,030 tons under the head "enrolled and licensed," which includes lake and river steamers. The numbers of sailing and steam vessels in the British and colonial merchant navy, and in the navies of foreign countries, are shown in the table given below. The figures relate to the year 1904:—Great Britain 37,055 vessels, United States 20,949 vessels, Germany 4,224 vessels, France 16,514 vessels.