TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8341, 25 January 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

When the London Times stated, a day or two ago, in commenting upon Lord Northcote's speech, that while the cry "Australia for the Australians" is very good it is equally good and necessary that there should be enough Australians for Australia, it gave utterance to a sentiment with which all intelligent colonists must agree. Fpr what is true of Australia is true of every under-popu-lated colony throughout the Empire, and particularly true of New Zealand. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick, Chief Secretaiy in the South Australian Government, who is on a visit to Christcliurch just now, is naturally puzzled by the existence of an Independent Labour Party in New Zealand. He cannot see why Labour should want to separate itelf from Liberalism in this country. The position is quite different in Australia, and, of course, in the Mother Country, and Mr Kirkpatrick does not imagine that a mere name will ever satisfy' the workers. But they have received so many substantial advantages from their inclusion in the Liberal Party in New Zealand that he cannot understand why any section of them should wish to terminate the' association. A revival of British enterprise in Mexico is noticeable, being to a great extent the outcome of the friendly relations existing between the two countries. Kemarkable evidence is to be found in' the approaching visit of a number of wealthy and influential Englishmen, with a view to acquiring- important railw ay and other landed interests in Mexico: They are travelling with Mr Arthur E. Stilwell, president of the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railway -in connection with whose railway and the floating of about £5,000,000 worth of bonds Mr Stilwell recently paid a visit to England, meeting, as it is understood, with very consider--1 able success. The forthcoming official opening of the National Tehuantepec Railway is also destined to draw public attention to British enterprise in Mexico, since this vast j undertaking, in connection with the construction of two terminal ports of Cuatzacoalcos and Salina Cruz, is the work of a London firm. An old Maori wahine, who in her youth performed a heroic action and carrieel it through so successfully that she has since been known as New Zealand's "Grace Darling," came before His Honor Mr Justice Sim, at Nelson, a few days ago, with an application for the removal of certain restrictions placed upon a piece of land, in which she has an interest. The heroine is now advanced in years, decrepit and ill, yet when ( she was a young girl, living with her people on one of the Croixelles, she performed a great deed. , The Delaware, a big ship, helpless and disabled, came drifting ashore, and eventually stranded. There were s<?me 23 souls on board, and they found no possible means of reaching the land. ,A crowd of natives and Europeans assembled on the beach awaiting anxiously the terrible moment when the vessel would break up and the crew would be lost. No one dared venture into the boiling breakers, but at last Huria Matenga, afterwards Mrs Martin, took hold of a line, swam through the surging surf, and passed the line aboard the ship, with the result that every person on the doomed vessel was saved. The settlers in Nelson, rightly regarding the. act as one of the most heroic our history records, presented Huria Matenga with a gold watch.