TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9564, 10 August 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

THE FREEHOLD IN DENMARK. Hard work, simple living, good training, and co-operation applied in most scientific manner to the various industries of the farm, make the Danish peasant owner one of the best and most successful farmers in the world. The result is seen in the fact that a counry possessing little more than six million acres of arable and pasture land expmted in 1907 over five million pounds worth of bacon, nearly nine and a-half million pounds worth of butter, and a million <»nd a-half pounds' worth of eggs. And Denmark is not a naturally rich country, much of the larld being poor.

The remedy. Order present conditions, millions of acres are idle and unused, paying no rates and controlling nothing to the national prospeiiiy. The settlement of those waste linds would very speedily and pern.antrtly remove the unemployed difficulty, says the Wanganui "Herald," and set the Do-

minion forward on a new era of prosperity unexampled in the history of the past.

ENCOURAGING VOLUNTEERS. The general manager of the ©giflvie Flour Mills, Ltd., of Winnipeg and Montreal {Canada), has issued an order ; in the fallowing : terms : :—"As aD incentive for the members of our permanent staff to join the 'Canadian M'iiltia the management ftfctve decided ! to grant 'to 'those joining any militia corps one week's extra holiday each year during their militia service, arid'in the event of any of them being called out on active duty, 'their positions with the company willbe held open for them, and without 1 prejudice to their promotion, until they are relieved from such'active service. This order to become effective at once." The post-1 mg of the ndtice was received with demonstrations M great enthusiasm amongst the employees, and large ntfmbtirs 'immediately announced their intention of taking up arms. As the' tegilvie : Company have many

hundreds of hands in their employ, it is not unlikely that the local corps will be largely augmented.

THE POSITION IN CRETE.

The hoisting of the Greek flag in Crete after the departure of the suzerain Powers has aroußed intense feeling in Turkey. The Chauvinistic spirit in the army threatens complications. The four Powers in Crete (Great .Britain, France, Italy, and Russia) carried out their undertaking to remove their troops from Crete before the end of July, and the flags of I the protecting Powers and of Crete J were hauled down at Canca a fort- j ' night ago. The islam! han been under the care of the four Powers since 1897, when a Greek force, under Colonel Vassos, landed. The Greeks were ordered back, autonomy was proclaimed, an Assembly organised, and Prince George of Greece was appointed High Commissioner the island remaining under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan. Under the Constitution of 1899, the Porte renounced its rights in consideration of the payment of a million and a half francs, and the salt monopoly for 20 years. In July, 1906, the Powers resolved to reorganise the gendarmerie and create a militia to replace the international troops, also j to settle questioHs with Turkey, and ! to enforce equal rights for Moslems and Christians. Prince George resigned, and his place was taken by ;M. Zamis. The Cretan militia are in charge now that the international troops have retired, but the panHellenes are reviving the agitation for union with Greece, and have gone so far as to hoist the flag of that country in the Cretan capital. The. Turkish Government had; indicated I that Greek occupation will not be tolerated. The material for a war, therefore, exists in Crete, and the possibility of trouble is greatly increased by the withdrawal of the , Powers.