TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8345, 30 January 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

• Reuter's Vienna correspondent says that, according to advices from Belgrade, the recent talk of a conspiracy against the Karageorge House is not entirely without warrant. King Peter is losing ground on all sides. Even the members of the present Government party, the old Radicals (Moderates) are not particularly attached to him, stnd he is really supported only by the conspirators' party who placed him on the throne. The position of the dynasty will come to the fore, first of all in the secret sessions of political clubs and later in the Skupstina. Whether the Servians will decide upon a foreign prince, as appears to' be their whim at the moment, -or whether the Radicals, for the purpose of retaining power, will bring about the abdication of the King in favour of his younger son under' a "Regency, is a matter which only the future can determine.

The surplus labour that will be thrown on the market when the Main Trunk railway is completed was brought under the notice, of the Minister of Public Works, (the Hon. W. Hall-Jones), at Raurimu, last week. A deputation of the men waited upon tfye Minister and asked if the Government would have set aside some of the land in that, district for settlement as the works drew to a close. Mr Hall-Jones replied that this question was already being considered'by the Government. As intimated in the Budget Speech last year, the Lands Department was already looking over several blocks of land upon which the men could settle as soon as the works were drawing to a completion.

According to the latest mail reports, the wheat crops of Western Canada will not be so large as was predicted earlier. The Premier at one time claimed a crop of not less than 100,000,000 bushels, and many agreed with him, some going as high as 125,000,000. * The North-, West Grain Dealers' Association has made its official estimate for j the three" provinces of t the West< This shows a total acreage of 4,495,000, with a total crop of 86,304,000. bushels. Unfavourable weather about harvest time accounted for a considerable diminution in the ferop. The acreage of oats was 1,838,000, andjjthe . crop 75,358,000 bushels; barley 546,000 acres, giving 17,362,000 bushels; and flax 55,660 acres, giving 628,958 bushels. Ship'ments to lake ports till the middle of October were 33,380,080 bushels, • against 27,234,000 for the same period last year. On £the other hand, the Department of the Interior reported a wheat crop of 90,824,141) against 84,175,320 last year.

Christchurch provision merchants assert that as far as Christchurch is concerned, the Labour Department food statistics, which were recently published, are incorrect. They admit that fish is dear, but maintain that the reason why it is dearer in Christchurch than in Wellington is simply because railage charges have to be paid. Wellington is supplied not only from its own immediate district but also from Auckland and Napier by a rapid service, and this service could not be extended to Christchurch, without charges for freezing and cold storage. As a matter of fact, it costs more to bring blue cod from the Bluff to Christchurch than it, does tolsend the fish to Melbourne. Concerning meat, a master that the prices quoted in the pamphlet were fancy prices. The maximum had been put oh to Canterbury and the minimum on'to other provinces. It was absurd to suggest that good mutton was dearer in Canterbury than in Auckland or* Wellington. He would gladly be prepared to place meat upon the market in Auckland and Wellington at the price which it was suggested ruled in Canterbury, himself paying all charges.