TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9556, 31 July 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

GLORIFICATION OP MR HOGG. Mr'Hogg is now., riding in Ins carriage in Auckland, with a brass band in front and a large crowd of supremely happy supporters of his scheme behind. The glorification of Mr Hogg is a physiological conundrum that is beyond our ability to fathom, says the "North Otago Times." With an apparent knowledge of the effect of his fallacies on the country crowds gather together to cheer and applaud him! Is the whole thing an expression of the contrariness that is the warp and woof ot many of our existences? At the time that Mr Hogg is listening to the laudations of Auckland. Sir Joseph Ward is hurrying away from the Dominion with the key of Parliament in his pocket, glad pernaps to be out of reach of the plaints of the workless till the worst is over. And Mr Hoge is the crowned king of labor! RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Unless the South Island is to be very severely handicapped it must guard against the repetition of the blunders of the past that have made its railways costly to work We have the Gtago Central making a return of 6s per cent., says the "Southland Times," and draining the profits from other lines, and we have the Midland, which has yet to justify the huge expenditure incurred in connection with its completion. These two lines are , likely to be a permanent incubus upon the South Istarid system, and if the number is increased by the construction of railways between such places as Lawrence and Roxburgh our position will become almost hopeless. If the disparty between the profits of the lailways of the North Island and those of the South becomes any

greater, it 'will give rise to a strong demand in the North Island for a readjustment of the tariff, which if carried into effect will be a serious blow to South Island trade.