TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8372, 5 March 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The following are a few of the questions to be considered at the New Zealand Labour Conference at Easter:—"That the Government be urged to immediately nationalise the boot industry, so that our population can be supplied with New Zealand made goods at a considerable reduction on present prices." "That the Government be urged to pass legislation to prohibit the immigration of Chinese." "That all hotels be deemed to be shops within the meaning of the Act, and that all workers in such hotels be deemed to be shop assistants, and be given the same privileges as other shop assistants." "That the provisions of the present Shops and Offices Act relating to the half-holiday be extended to all club, restaurant, hotel and tea-room servants, and also to servants in boardinghouses other than members of the proprietor's family." Government Reform—(a) extension of the franchise to the parliamentary roll; (b) all local bodies to be elected by popular vote; (c) all electors to have the right to vote on all questions submitted to a poll." "Establishment of State clothing and boot factories, flour and woollen mills, bakeries, ironworks and iron shipbuilding yards, and coastal and intercolonial shipping trade." "That the Conference re-affirm their staunch adherence to the principle of land nationalisation." "That the Conference support and endorse the progressive provisions of the present Land Bill."

I The Dunedin School Committee discussed holidays in schools a few days ago. Several speakers condemned the extension of holidays. One speaker's opinion was that the life of school children was now being tinted colour-de-rose, and when they came into the realism of life they were only a trouble to themselves and to their employers. Too many holidays was one cause. Another said he could not see where the hardships of school life came in. He had visited a school and found the pupils in one room discussing an accident; in another they were wrapt up in Fijian clubs. Dr. Church, one of those who took part in the discussion, asserted, however, that nearly every individual in the community was worked too hard under existing economic conditions, and the day would come when everyone, child and adult, would get more holidays, and the latter would be paid for them too.

Mr Winston Churchill has informed a London interviewer that there is no truth in the suggestion contained in the report freely circulated that he was about to leave the Colonial Office. This statement seems to

dispose,of the rumor that the UnderSecretary for the Colonies is to be transferred either to the Education Office or the Office of Works. While it is probably accurate, it must not be taken too literally. A Minister is not at liberty to disclose the secrets of his Government, and may consider himself entitled, when questioned, to deny a report which he cannot affirm without breach of confidence. Assuming the statement to be correct, the question arises: "Is Mr Churchill to become Secretary for the Colonies?" This was one of the questions put to him by the interviewer. If so, his statement that he was not to leave the Colonial Office would be verbally accurate, though it would not convey the meaning generally attached to it. The reply almost universally given to this startling question was that, Mr-Churchill has not yet had sufficient Ministerial experience to qualify him for a position of such supreme importance.

When speaking at Mangonui, in the North of Auckland, recently, the Minister of Lands made some important statements regarding the public works policy. In the course of his remarks he said that New Zealand had a very great capital invested in railways, and it was building railways at a rate that had scarcely been equalled in New Zealand since the days of the great public woiks policy of Sir Julius Vogel. He thought it was a mistake on the part of the last Administration that, in answer to the popular clamour, it allowed a great number of railways to be put on the stocks. The present Adminisration found the great Main Trunk railway incomplete, and the Helsns-ville-Northward line lagging behind, and ' the Ota go Central in the same position. The xesult was that the small railways were allowed to go on at a very slow pace, and it was the intention of the Government not to start any new lines until the great bulk of the lines now started are . carried to completion. The Otago Central would be finished in April as far as it would go for many years, ! and it would not be long/before the Main Trunk was completed.