TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9664, 1 December 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

CANADA'S REAL DANGER. It is of transcendent importance to the Empire that the colonies should be settled by British citizens. An analysis of our immigration statistics shows that we are in real danger of | having poured into nir national life too large a percentage of non-British blood, says the "Manitoba Pree Press." The problem of the retention of the British spirit is for us a serious one; and we will welcome all the help we can obtain from our brother Britons.

IS IT A BLUNDER? We cannot help thinking that when the China unit was given the ad-

ditional task oi safeguarding: the interests of New Zealand, our tiaval strategists must have been studying remarkably small scale maps, remarks the "China Mail." Ilow otherwise came they to separate New Zealand from the Australian unit? Too much reliance 's being placed, we fear, upon the permanency of the alliance, and too little is being made of that very intangible asset which goes by the name of national prestige.

IHE FARMERS' OUTLOOK. During the course of his speech at Mackenzie, on Saturday evening last, the Minister for Agriculture, in referring to the fanners' outlook, said: —We have the promise of a most bountiful harvest, if all goes well. For the majority of our products there should be satisfactory prices—for butter, chefse, wheat and wool especially—whilst hemp is improving, and our frozen meat still stands at a considerable advance over prices obtained not so long ago. The in creased price in wool, and also the increase in output (based on the price of May of last year), should equal fully £3,000,000 to the settlers of this country. There has been an increase of 22,00U,0001b for the year ending 31st March over that of the j previous year, and this season pro-! raises to mark a still greater increase. Our exports for the seven months of this year show an increase in value of more than £2,000,000 over the corresponding period of last year. The difference between imports and exports marks sound commercial and financial progress. As regards wool, at any rate, everything points to a continuance of the present satisfactory conditions. The total of (he world's flocks at the end of 1908 was 482,884,528, as against 522,564,135 in 1893, and during the same period the world's wool-using population had increased from 522,836,225 in 1895 to 610,391,508 in 1908. The flocks are thus decreasing, while the users of woo! are increasing.