TOPICAL READING

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3111, 9 February 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING

OUR FINANCES. Dealing with the finances of the Dominion, the "Southland News" says: —"The revenue is buoyant, the finances are elastic, everything wanted in reason is at hand v;ith regularity and despatch. But these things are not excuses for extravagance of hope and exorbitancy of demand. Of course, there are certain things which must have money found for them—things like education, defence, roads in the backblocks, and the like. But the list of necessaries must be patriotically cut down to suit the state of the public purs?. Self-denial is only another name for self-reliance; aid sdfdenial fill be the keynote nf the Budget of 1909."

SALE OF;POISUNS. Although in nearly every other civilised country strict regulations are in force regarding the sale of opium, in Great Britain the drug has been hitherto easily obtainable. Under the Poisons and Pharmacy Bill, which is or,ly awaiting the Royal assent, it will be impossible, however, to obtain opium unless the purchaser is known to the chemist and the former signs the chemist's poison book. The new Bill, in fact, will have an important bearing on the sale of poisons generally. An entirely new schedule o£ poisons has been drawn > up which will place restrictions on the sale of a number of poweriul drugs which have hi.herto betn sold quite freely. Thus sulphqnal, a popular soporific which has caused the death of a number of persons, will not be obtainable unless the package containing the article, be labelled "poi&on'i' and other regulations conformed to in order that the purchaser may realise the potency of the drug. Vitriol, spirits of salt, and nitric acid, which in the past have been sold without any legislative regulation, are included in the poisons purchase of which will only be possible under careful restrictions.

A TURKISH PLAY. While the play "An Englishman's Home" is v we hope) rousing Englishmen to a sense of their duty, the Turks are enjoying a representation on the of their dramatic blow for liberty last year. The first act is in Macedonia, where a group of Young Turkish officers talk about reform, and the utter rottenness of the regime. When the hero is alone a spy and a squad of men burst in and search the room, but can find nothing incriminating. "Confound it all—l shan't get my promotion !" fc exclaims the spy, at which the audience roars j

with delight. Act 11. finds the hero (who had escaped by the window) j practising law in Asia Minor, and working hard for the Cause. Spies again appear, and the hero is arrested and taken back to IVacedonia, to be tried by a Court of servile officers, whose entry evokes a storm of hisses from the audience. The trial scene is very like many a scene in British and colonial melodramas. Just as the hero is about to be condemned, a company of infantry that has raised the standard of revolt, breaks in, and sets the prisoner free. The Court begs for mercy."Mercy?What mercy did you show to the women who begged the lives of their sons, the girls who kissed your feet to sive their lovers? You thought yoursalves j safe—you thought the Committee was a handful of exiles—you never knew the Committee was the Turkish people itself. Away with you" The hero is acclaimed as the leader. "No, no—l am but a private soldier in the Cause. To the mountains, to raise the standard of the Constitution and God defend us. God who loves justice!" JEnver \sey, the leader of the revolution, called the Turkish Garibaldi, was in the theatre, and the whole audience rose and cheered him wildly. The mere account of the play is sufficient to quicken the puise of the Briton, so what must be the effect on the Turn?