TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9224, 23 June 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

THE WARD POLICY.

There is no adequate opening of Crown and Native lands to waiting and eager settlers, and the effect, says the Auckland "Herald," is to paralyse development, to block progress, to manufacture unemployment, and to rendar it inevitable that increasing national burdens shall be met by increasing taxation instead of by an increasing number of taxpayers and by automatically increasing national revenue.

THE POLICE FORCE,

We are not enamoured of the idea of holding afiother Royal Commission j of Inquiry into the management of the police force, remarks the Christchurch "Press." We give the Minister for Justice, Dr. Findlay, credit for desiring to improve the conditions of the force, and we shall wait with interest to see what steps he takes, in view of the nerious allegations which have been made We are satisfied that there is room for considerable improvement in the administration, and that this is required not only in the interests of ihe public, but of the really capable and efficient members of the force, who constitute the vast majority, and ought) not tu suffer trom the discredit which is cast upon them as a body through the misdeeds of a few black sheep.

MOVEMENTS OF POPULATION.

During last month the arrivals in New Zealand totalled 2,424, and the departures 3,556, a loss of 1,132 for New Zealand. The incomers included 1,320 men, and m the ranks of the outward bound there were 2,200 men. Thus "male adults" constituted 880 out of the loss of 1,132 by emigration. For May last year the arrivals were 2,659, and the departures 3,031, involving a decrease ol 372 in New Zealand's population, of which adult males contributed 198 (1,570 arrivals against 1,76S departures). It is usual to see the exodus exceeding the ingress here at this time of the ypar, but the difference for May this year is noticeably above the normal. It is explained partly by a reduction of immigrants from Great Britain, partly by the return of Australians to their own warmer territory, when the winter begins to set in here, partly by the "trippings" of New Zealanders who leave in the early winter to catch the j Northern Hemisphere's summer,'and partly by the fact that numbers of men, discouraged by the congestion of the local labour markets, have decided to try their luck iri Australia.

LADIES' PUBLIC BATH. The question of the site of the ladies' public bath at Masterton, to be erected with Dr. W. H. Hoskings' donation of £SOO, was yet again discussed at the meeting of the Masterton Council, last evening. The Council held divided opinions as to which of two alternate sites in the Park should be chosen—one near the intake to the Lake or another site removed from the Lake site, and nearer the north gates. Cr Rig& said he was against having the bath in the Park at all, but the Mayor stated that it was a condition of the gift that the bath should be in the Park. After some discussion the site near the Lake was decided against, chiefly as it was considered that it would be too expensive a proceeding to ma!:e baths on this site sufficiently private, and also because it was thought''that difficulty might arise in various ways >in getting water into the baths from the river in view of prospective work in connection with the northern approach. Cr Ewington stood alone in supporting the site by the Lake, giving as his reasons for so doing that it would be a less expensive matter than the Council thought to make baths there private.