TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9667, 4 December 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

"MERE AUTOMATONS." "Mere automatons," was the description applied by Mr Taylor (Christchurch North! in the House of Representatives, on Thursday last, to the members of the Ministerial party. They were not only treated with absolute contempt, said Mr Taylor, with respect to the principles of contemplated legislation, but they had nothing to do with the making of their Cabinets. Not a member of the party for the last eighteen years bad had anything to do with the creation of one Cabinet Minister. If members of the party had had any influence in regard to these appointments, the chances were there would have been a very much more orderly array on the Cabinet benches than was the case.

; SOCIALISM STRIKES AGAINST SOCIALISM. The long arm of coincidence has seldom indulged in a more elfish freak than that which brings about a strike of State coal-miners in New Zealand just when Mr M'Gowen and his followers have come out to demand the nationalisation of our coalmines as the only means of prevent ■ ing strikes, says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph." The New Zealand Government miners cannot coerce the boss who is placed over them, and have shut off the public coal supply until their grievances are redressed. Fortunately, however, the State has same privately-managed runes in which the men appear to have no ! grievance, so that a coal famine, which the Government employees would otherwise have created, is so far averted. The New Zealand Government mine professes to give the people cheaper coal than they would otherwise be able to get, while paying better wages to the men and making splendid profits for the State. As figures under manipulation can be made to prove anything, the balancesheets of the concern show this to the admiring taxpayer, who does not scrutinise such matters as closely as the experts of the stock market, so that the juggle passes amongst them for sound finance. What happens is that the Government buys f»om its own mind coal for V.s own railways at a fictitious price, giving itself a fictitious pr.tfit in that way which sets off the l«ss ot. what it sells at a rate that would otherwise cause the accounts to show a loss.

A CHINESE NAVY. The reception by King Edward, of Chinese Commissioners sent to England by the Chinese Government fnr the purpose of studying the organisation of the British Navy, is one of the most convincing proofs yetgiveo that China is indeed waking up. In due course, no doubt, Chinese navtJ cadets will be enrolled, and taught their duties on English ships just as Japanese naval cadets were taught three or four decades ago. One of those Japanese naval cadets who learned hi 3 tactics and his seamanship on a British warship lived to be the victor of Tsushima. And it may »well happen that some youthful Chinese, following in the wake of the Commission [which has just been received by the King at Windsor, will live to lead a powerful Chinese navy to a new Trafalgar in Asiatic waters. The Asiatic races, with their preternaturally developed imitative faculty, are copying the fighting methods o'f Europe as minutely as possible. German -ind Fremh military drill j and organisations: British traditional of naval leadership, and British Hn.t!iodi tf s amansh'p and gun-

nery are all being used to develop the strength of two nations, which possess conjointly one-fourth of the population of the entire inhabited globe. China may yet become a great naval nation, as Japan is already. Tr.e history of the second half of last century shows that, measured by years, a brkf period suffices for the construction and organisation of a tremendously formidable naval force. Consequently a brief period is al! that Australasia can safely count upon as a time of preparation for any trials that the future may bring forth.

REVIVAL IN TKADE. - Speaking at the half-yearly meeting of shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand, at Wellington, yester-, day, Mr H. Beauchamp, Chairman of Directors, said that p distinct revival in trade appears to have set in all over the world. Every mail received recently had brought intelligence, of renewed activity in one industry or another. The steel trades were particularly busy, the demand for steol rails being especially strong. Tne production o pig iron in the United States was mow up to the highest level of recent years. In Great Britain there was a distinct improvement. Ship-building the main industry of the United Kingdom—was showing signs of recovery. The European and American money markets were at the moment rather high, but this was not an unusual feature at this time of the year. The favourable conditions now apparent in Europe and America are being reflected in New Zealand. The export and import returns proved conclusively that the community had profited by the temporary depression. Traders and producers had been forced to face the position, and their efforts have resulted in the equilibrium being restored. The exports showed a substantial surplus over the imports, and, so far as New Zealand was concerned, that amounted to a favourable trade balance. For the year just ended the exports exceeded the imports by £3,784.151, and New Zeaalnd was back to the position of 1906-7, which,was the year of her extreme prosperity. It was necessary for this country, to show a substantial excess of exports over imports, because it had to meet annually a very large interest liability in connection wih public and private indebtedness.