TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8361, 18 February 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The Hon. H. A. Nichols, M.L.A.. a member of the Council of Agriculture of Tasmania, who lately visited New Zealand writes as follows to the New Zealand Farmers' Advocate: —"I have been very much impressed with the large area of first and second-class lands, and can see the great possibilities New Zealand possesses as asupplier of food and clothing (meat, butter, wool, flax, etc.) to the millions in the old lands. New Zealand seems capable of great development, eapablo of carrying a very large population living on the soil, or living by the work connected with production from the land. On the other hand, there seems a tendency to promote the growth of cities, city factories, etc. The policy that aggregates people in the cities is a wrong one."

The boy labour problem has been agitating the minds of Wellington manufacturers for some time past, and the Wellington Industrial Association has set itself the task of discovering a solution to the difficulty. The committee appointed to make a report thereon questioned Mr|La Trobe, director of the Technical School, who, in reply as to what course manufacturerst-were to take in the face of the fact that the boy population of the colony is not sufficient to meet the demands, replied that he considered that what would have to come about would be that more machinery for work usually performed by boys in workshops would have to be brought into use, so as to reduce the necessity for employing the quantity of boy labour. "If this is a correct idea," says the committee in its report, "then it behoves the technical schools to see that boys are well taught, in order that when they wish to enter workshops they can take with them that knowledge which they would have gained had they gone at an earlier age."

The Prevention of Corruption Act, which came into force in the United Kingdom on January Ist last, provides that if an agent corruptly accepts or attempts to obtain, or agrees to accept or attempt to obtain, for himelf or for any other person, any gift or consideration as an inducement or reward for doing or forbearing to do any act, in relation to his principal's affairs and business, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding £SOO, or to both such, imprisonment and such fine, or on summary conviction to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding four months, or to a fine not exceeding £SO, or to both such imprisonment and such fine. The same penalties are enforceable in the case of any person who agrees to give or offers any gift or consideration with a corrupt intention.