TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3139, 16 March 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A TROUBLESOME WEED. A weed that has been growing rapid* ly income of the best fishing streams in Southland is said to be killing the sport of angling. "It is so bad," a well-know fisherman informed a "Mataura Ensign" representative, <T that"it is only with difficulty that a boat can get through it. It is an impediment for tHe ducks even, and the fact that it is getting into the Kaiwere, the Leithen, the Pomahaka, and the Wairekiki is being viewed with alarm by those who have the interest of the sport at heart. In a very short time it will have spread into all the streams in Southland, and this will mean that the only time anglers will be able to indulge in their sport will be in the first two months of the season, October and November, when the growth is not

noticeable to a great extent. If the acclimatisation societies throughout New Zealand would take steps to have it cut away now I have no doubt that the streams would be available for fishing with very little expense, but if the growth is allowed to continue the question may be a big one in the near future." Questioned as to the orgin of the weed, the gentleman approached said he had first noticed it three years ago, and he believed that wild ducks had brought it from the Shag River.

THE DRUG HABIT. j In discussing the assembling at Shanghai of the delegates to the In- / ternationa) Opium Commission, the' correspondent of the London "Times" says:—There is unuuestionable evidence from Consular, Customs, and missionary sources that the production and consumption of the drug throughout China are diminishing; in some provinces in consequence of official pressure, in others as the result of the energy of local associations. There may be thus seen, for once at least, Imperial decrees producing concrete results. At the same time, the habits of many officials in high positions who are confirmed opiumsmokers and the reckless encouragement of the use of so-called antiopium medicines afford the usual spectacle of unorganised China at cross purposes with herself. Among the moat serious aspects of the opium i question which the Commission is bound to face is the fact that the anti-opium remedies almost without exception consist of morphia in one form or another. The clandestine importation of and the traiffic in this drug are known to have very greatly increased, with the result that the opium habit is giving place to a more insidious vice.

AUSTRIA AND SERVIA. Writing on Austria and Servia in the "Revue de Paris," M. Victor Berard summarises an anonymous article published at Vienna on November sth last, in the newspaper "Danzers Ar-mee-Zeitung." In this article the anonymous writer shows, that Vienna and Budapest are seeking every pretext for a war against the Serbs. He says, in effect:— "The conflict with Servia and Montenegro in the present state of things presents itself as inevitable. Arms and ammunition are arriving in Servia, and Italy is aiding our adversary, and is secretly preparing for war. We need a"n entente, with Turkey, which, at all costs, must become our friend, and to bring it about we must give financial support on a large scale and guarantee the integrity of the Ottoman Empire against all comers. We must become the immediate neighbour of Turkey on a wider frontier. But we cannot instal ourselves on th* Macedonian frontier till Servia an 1 Montenegro have defir itely disappeared. Consequently we should not av'pid a conflict with these two countries, but rather desire, it and hasten it on. In politics only brutal egotism obtains great results. Against Italy, for instance, we cojld rouse Abyssinia, and prepare a new Adoua, and it would not be difficult to foment, risings in Sicily and Sardinia. Against England we could exploit Egypt and India, and with an agreement with Turkey could provoke a Pan-Islamic movement to endanger British rule. It is high time that our policy should cease to be one of daily expediency, and that it should begin to deal with the great ends which shall assure the development of the monarchy. The first is the establishment of our hegemony in the Balkans, and when this is realised it ought to be followed Jbj expansion towards the east."