TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8349, 4 February 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The Attorney-General (the Hon. Dr. Findlay), in the course of an interview at Christchurch, on Friday, stated that he proposed to -reorganise that branch of his department that deals with the drafting of Parliamentary Bills. A new department—the Parliamentary Drafting Department —is to be created, and will be placed under the control of Professor W. T. Salmond, Lecturer on Law at the Victoria College, Wellington. All Bills before they go to the Legislature, and again before they are sent on to the Governor for his final assent, will pass through the hands of this department in order that technical flaws may be detected, and necessary verbal amendments made, and the Minister hopes by these means to avoid the litigation and trouble that have been caused by faulty drafting in the past.

Dr. Pomare, the Native Health Officer, referring to civilising effects upon the Maori race, states that it is only a question of time when the whole of the Maori race will disappear, as it is becoming assimilated with the Pakeha. In the South Island nearly all the Maoris there now are half-castes, and fully 75 per cent, of the Maoris in the South Island have European blood in them, if not more. There is the same tale to tell in the North Island. The old stock is gradually dying off, and even now a majority of the young stock has European blood in it. Within thirty years there will not be a pure blooded Maori in the whole of New Zealand. In the King Country 46 per cent, of the natives are half-castes. "In the Urewera Country," says Dr. Pomare, "you find less half-castes than elsewhere, but it is there that you also see the poorest class of natives. Many of the old stock are still preferring to live under their primitive methods."

In the course of a recent article on "The Shadow in Australia," the Sydney coi'respondent of the London Daily Mail drew attention to the vast empty territories of that country. The Northern Territory contains about 800 white people, or one to every 700 square miles, while on either side of this vast unoccupied space are other great empty regions. There is no "effective occupation" of Australia in the sense that international law requires, and of this the Japanese ajje perfectly aware. The development of the Northern Territory is therefore, a matter of great importance. Mr Justice Herbert told the Melbourne Argus the other day that the total population was less than 4,000, only a fourth of whom were Europeans. The quantity of land parted within the Territory is infinitesimal, and there is any quantity of land available for pastoral settlement. This pastoral country is magnificently grassed, in parts well watered, and in other parts capable of being artificially watered at reasonable cost.

America is an unconventional country, and President Roosevelt has probably less respect for traditions and formalities than any of his predecessors. This may to some extent account for the extraordinary scene in which the President has just played so dramatic a part at a literary dinner given last week in New York. The attack upon the President's policy by Senator Foraker is not in itself surprising. The Senate as a body has a bad reputation in America; and most of its members have been at various times publicly accused of accepting bribes to defend the plutocratic heads of the great trusts or to promote their interests. In President Roosevelt the leaders in the world of high finance see an implacable and indomitable enemy who is devoting all his personal and official resources to their destruction. And the President's own attitude towards the public controversies of the day has given his enemies every opportunity of making their quarrel a personal one. For example, the President's recent personal, intervention in the New York State elections is only one of many actions that have concentrated popular attention upon him more as an individual than as the official head of the Republic. His forceful personality and his persistent and unshrinking assertion of his principles, have given him a unique position in his own country.