TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9131, 2 July 1908, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

COUNTY PROGRESS. The Masterton County Council is not a body given to advertising its existence in the way many local bodies are prone to do, but it gets through an amount of solid work during the year just the same. The size of some of the pay-sheets passed month'y by the Council for woik done within the County,would smprise a great many people, who have little idea how progressive the Masterton County Council is in a great many respects, and it is evident that the settlers in the County jurisdiction have every confidence in the future of the district when tbey shoulder some of the self-imposed burdens of taxation without any hesitation. A little County improvement to be put in hand shortly is the widening by 16ft 6in of the Upper Plain Road, from Mrs Meredith's property to Mr R. J. Dagg's place, which means that a strip of road, roughlv a mile and a half long, will be improved by the change. The settlers on this strip of highway have generously given the land required, and only the assent of one smajl property owner is necessary (and that has been conditionally promised) for the work to proceed. The various riding representatives of the County keep a vigilant eye on the requirements of their respective wards, and rarely is a motion for a progressive improvement negatived by the Council, who work together with a harmony that is making for the rapid advancement of the County's interests. COST OF SETTLEMENT. Particulars were laid before Parliament on Tuesday last of the estates acquired by the Government under the compulsory clauses of the Land tor Settlements Act as at October 31st, 1907. The details nieasfol* low: —Ardgowan: Price paid £34,600; tax value, £31,246; cost of survey, etc., £4,252; number of 'tenants at 31st March, 1907, 66; total receipts' to date, £20,378; Hatuma: Price paid, £141,393; tax value, £117,920; coat of survey, etc., £8,056; number of tenants, 62; total receipts to date, £45,198. Kumeroa: Price pair", £29,092; tax value, £21,680; cost of survey, etc., £3,227; number of tenants, 15; total receipts, £7,580; Fcrest Gate: Price paid, £48,521; tax value, £31,815; cost of survey, etc., £1,196; number of tenants, 28; total receipts, £11,882 Argyll: Price paid, £158,031; tax value, j £113,517; cost of survey, -etc, i £8,455; number of tenants, 62; j total receipts, £31,004. Matumata; , Price paid, £127,515; tax value, I *

£109,635; cost of survey, etc., £9,199; number of tenants, 173; total receipts, £18,318. Flaxbourne: Price 'paid, £183,044; tax value, £120,509; cost of "survey, etc., £22,309; number of tenants, 132; total receipts, £18,939. Lindsay: Price paid, £96,206; tax value, £87,244; cost of survey, eic, £9,448; number of tenants, 67; total receipts, £10,443. Tawaha: Price paid, £34,133; tax value, £27,736; cost of survey, etc., £1,365; number of tenants, 23; total receipts, £1,901: Waimana: Price paid, £18,492; tax value, £15,596; cost of survey, etc., £586. A YEAR'S CRIME. A terrible condition of affairs in Macedonia is brought home to one by a perusal of a Bluebook issued recently, covering the doings of the bands for last year. The number of assassinations was 1,768, of which Bulgarians were responsible for 521, Patriarchate for '392, Serbs 96, Vlachs 32, and Moslems 191. The number of armed insurgents killed in encounters with the troops was 417. Of the 1,768 persons known to have met with a violent death during the year 991 were Bulgarians, who established an evil pre-eminence both in killing others and in getting themselves killed; 319 were Greeks and Patriarchists, 155 were Serbs, 40 Vlachs, 128 Moslems, while th* remainder of the slain (135) are included under the head of "Soldiers, Zaptiehs. etc." "It will thus be seen," remarks the London "Standard,"' "that it is Christian harrying Christian that makes a shambles of Macedonia." A case reported by the British Consul at Monastir may be taken as typical of the violence which prevails in the country. The chief of a Bulgarian band was denounced to the Turks by certain villagers, and the man was killed in a fight with the troops. His kinsman, Dimko Nikoloff by name, who was in America at the time, swore to avenge him, and returned to Europe for the purpose. Entering the village church during service, he shot dead two of the men he had sworn to punish, and killed anothsr man as he left the village. Three days later a large band came to the village, and burned Dimko's house anJ four others, twenty-six ppople perishing in the llamci. When a commission of enquiry visited the village, the villagers dared not give evidence. "One cannot help being struck," remarks the "Standard," "in reading the reports uf British officials in Macedonia, with the increased activity of the Gretk bands and with the evident complicity uf the Greek Government in their operations. Many of the most atrocious outrages by Greeks are made, the subject of special reports from our Consular Agents, and we find that the Greek Government, in the form of Consular Agents, are often directly concerned in a mass acra, and that regular officers of the Greek army are in constant service with the bands."