TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3196, 24 May 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A PEOPLE AT PLAY. England attained national supremaey largsly by the exercise of those qualities that are fostered by wholesome sport, but times have changed, and are still changing, and supremacy can only be maintained if those qualities are supplemented by the skill and knowledge that come of hard wjrk and application. There must be a little less folding of the hands, a little less closing of the eyes in calm sslf satisfaction at the place our fathers won for U3 in the world, or that place will know"us no more, says the Christchurch "Press." We shall be passed in the race by nations with whom sport is subsidiary to work, unless we devote more attention to cultivating the faculties and powers upon which in these days, and the days to come, national great ness must depend. DOMINION FINANCE. Shorn of all the glamor of an oratorical effort from the public platform and of the his personal magnetism the Treasurer's statements does not carry a very convincing assurace that all is well with the Dominion's finances, remarks the "Mataura Ensign." It is all very well to denounce as traitorsj:hose who raise a warning voice, but the tact remains that in every one of the departments of the State enormous increases took place last year. And this on top of similar excessive increases in previous years. No wonder the Government has set about retrenchment. We have a splendid country, with great resources, but it cannot carry much more similar loading. Not only retrenchment to the extent of the quarter of a million which has been promised should be mads, but we will not be surprised if another quarter of a million on top of that has to be cut out before a sound financial basis is reached.