TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8383, 18 March 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

\'4MvWs n g °f the relations|3Be'£w£en. , /jMg&fand the tynited' Sptes/§jK; £«rasipK'Laurier lately saiq would be United or at( any cpffig I the, way of trade 50^9©*^' j suft&e do not look ' MowgT we 'have •4ong ago. We do. not care any more 1, ■ tyc& have these trade concessions, inhere was a time when we would jsf§tve given a great deal to have trade from our-American neighjwfafc} they chose in their own way ;to,-lUrefuse these; we have done ;pj?efty well without them, and at do not, expect *' •■;; ..>;•..«—i_L 1 The j,Scottish people (says the ScotsnfanjjVj/'nl refuse to have their dpiniohsVdn the cava'ry question brushed contemptuously aside by Mr R. B, Haldane. After all, Mr Haldane' Himself,-,. Jfas. nothing to offer . but*< opinions! .'-'He has thougbt'much^Ji^has Spoken" .much; but he nothing to^pVdve.^jiwl^.hisKfflFaTicl' scheme'6f \Stniy'^o>ganiWtits»ri : ''-is' ■ T any* better -than ■■ the. schemes-of his predecessors. Hjs f . plans may come to little"Wnothing, &nd-&cotland and the country at large may waken in the end to find fctftat* tradition* and a» - healthy national sentiment have been compensating 1 advantage having been secured,, Who is Mr Haldane, that yhe'shbuld ' thus' ruthiesajy ' override «>th.e strong and uriahimou&desir& ofi&a'iiasion? - He has yet, to show that at .last r we have found "'"in" Hiis •militaryjTefQrjmer, And until he has giVeh VJr sb£e^'tiahg f ible proof of Tiis

capac%jr, it would be well for him that he should temper his zeal with some little admixture of prudence and consideration for the judgment and desires of others.

A curious situation has arisen in the Central Telephone Exchange, Melbourne. Sunday work by the gilrs was ordered some little time ago, with an intimation that those who had conscientious objections to working on Sundays would be exempted. The operators were paid ex- : tra for the Sunday work, and were told that they would have a day off during the week. But in timetfie staff was so reduced by conscientious objections, that some of the operators, instead of working on one Sunday in eight, as was understood at first, worked on four Sundays out of five. It beca:-.',0 impossible to give the girls the C.uys promised them, with the result that the management is now itiore'tk":: a thousand days in *rrcar. The manager, on being interviewed, said he was very sorry, but the regulations said that only those who had conscientious objections could get oil'. The reply to this by one operator was that she had conscientious objections to working on so many Sundays,! see'ing 4 that twothirds of„tbe operators were exempt. Another of the operators stated that the operators prefer the day off to the money.

The garden city at Letchworth, in Hertfordshire,. England, is turning out a great success. When the estate was purchased three years ago there were two villages upon it; now there is a town with some three thousand inhabitants, with more than a score of shops, two bahks, churches, schools, and gas and water services, not to mention the gardens and 'open spaces which are a special feature of the place. At the annual meeting, held recently, of the company which controls Letchworth, great satisfaction was expressed, at the success of this counter movement to the evils of slums, in spite of the fact that there had been a loss of on the year. In that time the population had doubled, the value of. buildings, bad. .gone up. from £90,000' to £237,000, and a number of business firms had secured sites for factories. The keynote of such a movement as that at Letch*worth is to remove manufactories from crowded areas to the country, and'the response of manufacturers to of the company, to come to Letchworth is said to be Imosi gratifying.