TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8357, 13 February 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The news that a Scotch Parliamentary party, for the first time since the Union, has met to organise a plan of campaign before the session, fully deserves the prominence that it has received in our cable columns. For a great many years past the only Nationalist party in the House of Commons has represented Ireland, and it is extremely probable that the success which has attended the efforts of the Irish Nationalists has promoted the formation of a patriotic party to the north of the Tweed. And now that this step has- been taken, it is quite possible that the Scotch Nationalists will vigorously impress themselves and their policy upon future Parliaments.

In an essay on the mineral resources of the colony, Mr R. Mcintosh says that quartz-mining in New Zealand had a very humble origin. Alluvial gold, consisting of specimen gold shed from a reef system, was found at Coromandel, Cape Colville Peninsula, North Island, in 1852. Although this became a quartz-min-ing centre in later years, and other discoveries took place all over the colony, resulting in the working of many mines, quartz-mining has only yielded about 25 per cent, of the total gold- production of the colony. "However," says Mr Mcintosh, "so rapid has been the progress of this branch of mining during the last few years, and so high a promise does it hold for future, richness and permanency, that we must now place quartzmining as second in importance only to coal-mining. During 1905 quartzmining may fairly be said to have produced over 58 per cent, of the total output for the year. Quartzmining, as now conducted at Waihi, Karangahake,' and Reef ton, fulfils all the conditions of a stable industry with regard to employment, output and dividends."

The Bishop of Melanesia, in his address at the garden party at Bishopscourt, Christchurch, on Saturday afternoon, alluded to the deportation of the Kanakas. He said there was no great danger of the Kanakas from Queensland in returning to the islands, because 49 out of 50 of the people were more' or less Christianised or civilised. If those returning were in peril anywhere, it was on the island of Malaita, but even there the Melanesian mission had fifteen stations, and those who were afraid to return to their former homes could take refuge at any of these. The people who had most to fear from the return of the Kanakas were the white men to whom, in some cases, the land of the absentees had been sold by their relatives. All who were interested in the welfare of the natives were congratulating themselves on the cessation of the Queensland Kanaka traffic, which happily synchronised with the suppression of the liquor trade in the New Hebrides under the agreement between Britain and France.

.• It appears that the outburst of rage on the part of Madame Calve, which had such important consequences, as related in recent cable messages, occurred upon the stage at Dresden, during a performance of "Carmen," and arose because the unhappy tenor, the Don Jose of the cast, made some mistake in the last act. The prima donna was so incensed that, without waiting for the fall of the curtain, she called the tenor various opprobrious names, and used exceedingly strong language against him. The King of Saxony, who heard it, immediately left the Royal box and the theatre, followed by his suite. Next day Madame Calve received a message saying- that the doors of the theatre would in future be closed against her, owing 'to the insults she had addressed to a Court official. The tenor is a Court official by reason of his performing at a Court theatre." Her tour thus came to a sudden end. Finally, she was ordered to pay £4BO to M. Schurmann, the manager, for breach of contract, arising otft of the "scene."