TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8384, 19 March 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

It is not to be supposed that Germany contains three million aault citizens who are ail convinced Socialists, and would, if they had the chance, hand over the State to be turned upside down and inside out according to the revolutionary principles of Marx, says'' the London Daily Telegraph. They may vote Socialist jaecause that is the best way of declaring themselves against the Government., but they do not really wish to destroy the Empire, or weaken the army or navy, or abolish all individual ownership. Nevertheless, the mere fact of so many millions voting the Socialist ticket is a nightmare to those in authority, and stiffens their opposition even to moderate and cautious political reform. The closing sentences of Prince Bulow's speech seemed to indicate that, in his opinion, a considerable section of the foreign press desired the triumph of the Social Democrats, because their victory would weaken Germany. In England at least there has been no indication in any responsible quarters of such short-sighted malice.

"The remarkable statement was reported to have been made recently by the New Zealand Attorney-General that the Arbitration ' Act of New South Wales never had friends in the Supreme Court of that State," says the Sydney Daily Telegraph. "The judges of this State expound the law as it is given to them, as they do, fortunately, in British countries generally, and the implication of such a remark as this would be too ridiculous to call" for the denial which is its proper answer were it not made by the official head of the legal profession in the colony., Also, it should be remembered that it is the High Court more than the State Supreme Court which has checked the rather numerous excursions of the Arbitration Court outside, its jurisdiction. The act 'had not the same freedom as the New Zealand Act,' the Attorney-General is reported as saying further, 'and he did not think it had been so well administered.' Yet there have been at least as many complaints against the judicial administration in New Zealand as 'in New South Wales."

A hit at the complacent Englishman's attitude towards the Empire is made by Mr Allan H. Stoneham, in a farewell address in the Bosworth division of Leicestershire, which he unsuccessfully contested at the last general election. He mentions, in the first place, his astonishment at finding a year ago that not a single school in the constituency (which has over 13,000 electors) possessed a map of the British Empire. "Unfortunately,"' he says, "the children of to-day are not taught about the Empire; they are taught about the Saxon Kings, but they are not taught about Canada. They are taught about the wives of Henry VIII., but they are not taught about the-States of Australia. They are taught about the Wars of the Roses and the Spanish Armada, but they are not taught about India, Egypt, or South Africa; and consequently they have no knowledge of these countries or of their value to the Empire as a , whole or to the humblest individual in the United Kingdom who obtains his tea from India and Ceylon, sugar from the West Indies and Queensland; and much of his daily bread and meat from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other British possessions."

There seems to be something in the atmosphere of Auckland that induces public beneficence. No city in the colony—none in Australia, if population and wealth are taken into consideration—has received so many splendid gifts from citizens who have thus declared their the place in which they made their home. And the end is not yet. Mr Henry Brett's gift of an organ even bigger and better than that of Wellington, is only the latest of the long list of benefactions with which the city has been enriched. There is plenty of variety in the offerings that have been made by grateful citizens. Charity is represented by the Costley Home for the aged poor, the Costley Institute for boys, the Parnell Orphan Home, and the Alexandra Convalescent Home. Social reform will be advanced by the Leys Institute, and the Dilworth bequest will be largely devoted to educational purposes. Art has benefited by the valuable Grey and Mackelvie collections, and by the gift to the Society of Arts of a gallery. Finally there is the splendid recreation ground of Cornwall Park, which the greater Auckland of a century hence will probably recognise as the host gift of all.