TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8351, 7 February 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

In an article on the money market the New Zealand "Trade Review draws attention to the fact that fixed deposits with the ordinary banks show a tendency to decrease, while the Post Office Savings Bank is drawing more in. . It %s pointed the excess of deposits over withdrawals at the post office last year amounted to no less than half a million of money, and the Review suggests that the institutjon is being used for a class of business and a class of deposit it was never itended for.

' Writing on November 23rd to a firm of New Zealand merchants, Messrs Mills and Sparrow, of London, say they wish New Zealand butter to come along salted, a3 they fear the unsalted business will be overdone, and it is also to be borne in mind that the> outlet which took quite a quantity from 1 the market, namely, the Dutch market, is at the present moment closed, because the importation of this faked butter-is practically stopped, and there " certainly are no new factories opening up in England, because ,of the bill which is now in the hands "of a committee, and which will no doubt be put before Parliament. The Dutch Government are also taking up the matter, so that the butter trade now may be put on a better and more healthy footing.

At a meeting of the Dunedin Branch of the Independent Political Labour League, last week, considerable dissatisfaction was expressed by members at the Vrecent appointments to the Legislative Council. It was stated that, while the League advocated the abolition of the Upper House, and would always do so, it was a fact that as long as it was there they had a right to use it, and the recent appointments Were taken as a direct insult to the intelligence of the Labour party. Labour represented 65 per cent, of the community, but was only allowed two out of fourteen representatives. The opinion was expressed that before any very long there would be a third party in the House of Representatives.

In connection with the reported arrest of a Japanese officer for espionage at Manila, the Washington correspondent of . the newspaper Osaka Mainichi reports that Captain Aldrich, who at one time commanded a garrison in the Philippines, h&s made the following statements:— "Japanese constantly go to Luzon for the purpose of making observations in view of an eventual occupation of the Philippines. On one occasion I captured ten Japanese engineers up country in the costume of the natives of the district. I discovered that they had prepared detailed maps of various places in the interior of the island, and had taken photographs of over 100 places. They were, however, released at the mouth of the river on which I found them. Their leader was a captain called Yamamoto, who boasted that the Japanese had better maps of the island than any in the possession of the Americans."

The Attorney-General (Hon. Dr. Findlay) states that applications have already been sent in by various legal practitioners in the colony for positions as King's Counsel. These will in due cousre be forwarded to the Chief Justice. In the meantime the Minister is ascertaining from the different Australasian States the number of King's Counsel appointed in each at the present time. The Government will, Dr Findlay states, be guided to some extent as to the number that should be appointed here by the numbers in the different Australian States. The concurrence of the Chief Justice, he points out, is, under the regulations, necessary, and it is competent for him to refuse his approval of even as many appointments as the Government desires. However, the course the Government will follow will be as nearly as possible the one followed in England, and, unless there are obvious objections to any applicant, his name will be submitted to the Chief Justice in the usual way. The Attorney-General proposes to wait some time for applications from the profession before taking further steps.