TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8353, 9 February 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The enterprise of the Canadian Government is well manifested in the energy with which they have pushed forward postal facilities in the northwest. A few years ago the idea of addressing a letter to "Fort McPherson, Arctic Circle," in the certainty of it being delivered within a reasonable time would have been considered absurd, but it is possible now. Four years ago Edmonton, now the capital of Alberta, was the limit of ordinary postal communication, and until recently Edmonton was reached by ox-cart. The Government gradually established a line of posts from Edmonton to Fort McPherson, on the McKenzie River, 2,000 miles from Edmonton and 5,000 from Ottawa. The service is carried ont" throughout the winter. The country is without roads and covered for six months in the year with ice and snow. The only practicable means of transport is by dog-sleigh. Five, six or nine dogs are harnessed to these postal sleighs,- the drivers of which may travel hundreds of miles without seeing a soul. Owing to the great distances which separate the settlers in this vast territory, the carriers deliver letters as they go along.

While British colonial Premiers are discussing an Imperial Council of Advice it is of the deepest interest to observe that the American Government has been driven by events in consulting individual States upon matters Of Federal policy. The Washington authorities declared that they would compel the Californian authorities to admit Japanese to their European schools. The Californian Government replied that it would not be intimidated and practically defied the Federal Government to attempt compulsion. Immediately there was a deadlock, for resort to law, with ample funds on each side, meant the, shelving; of the question for an indefinite period, and the impossibility of marching Federal troops against Californian State troops in order to open State schools to Japanese was seen from the beginning. President Roosevelt has offered the Californians a compromise. He has Arranged a provisional treaty with Japan, covering the point in dispute, which he intends to submit to the Californian school officials, hoping thereby to secure their consent to what is certainly some middle coruse. The point is of importance as showing the trend of modern politics.

The discussion which has arisen over the increase in representation awarded to the North Island will have the effect of bringing into general notice the rapid growth of the North Island as compared With the slower progress made by the South. At the census of 1891 the population of the North Island, was still considerbly below that of the South, the totals being 285,184 and 348,874 respectively. 'By 1901, however, the North had overhauled the South, the progress being North Island 398,822, South Island -388,835. Last year's census showed that the North Island population numbered 476,732, and the South Isalnd 411,644. It is not only in population, but in trade, in settlement, in the value of property that the North Island is outstripping the South Island. In the matter of trade, it will be found that while in 1895 the North Island received imported goods to the value of £3,513,960, against £2,850,231 for the South Island, in the year 1905 the North Island imports exceeded those of the other to a far greater extent, the values being respectively £7,635,679 and £5,004,635. As late as 1901 the exports of the South Island exceeded those of the North Island, the totals being £6,787,546 and £6,077,724 respectively. The very next year, however, the balance inclined the other way, and last year while the North Island exports amounted to ,£8,648,646, those from the South Island were 0n1y£6,986,691.

In a communication to the Otago Daily Times, Mr C. S. Reeves, a member of the South Island Representation Commission, enters a strong protest against what he terms the unjust treatment accorded to the South Island in connection with the recent adjustment of electorates. He contends that the South Island should have 36 representatives and the North Island 40. Mr Reeves says that if the same conditions continue for the next five years that have obtained in the past' five years, he fears at least five more South Island electorates will disappear, leaving the voting power of the North Island 46 as against 30 in the South. He considers it is probable that the Electoral Act may.be altered * next session, and says South Island members should then make every effort to have an equal number of electorates allotted to each island independently of population basis as between the two islands.