TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9702, 27 January 1910, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM. . Two articles in the "Nineteenth Century and After" have to do with the treatment of ''natives" within the Empire. Both deal more particularly with the South Afr'can phase of the problem. Sir Harry Johnston questions the wisdom of disfranchising under the new South African constitution natives who have hitherto had the vote in Gape Colony. "In the West Indies as in West Africa," he"says, "the negroes are at present ardent Imperialists because they have found in the British Empire an immense relief from native conditions of anarchy arid bloodshed, vast resources of capital, and an unfaltering spirit of justice which has, especially of late, made no distinction of race and colour. These people and the still small class (proportionately) of educated men in India will observe with the greatest interest the course which will be taken by the British Government in regnr-i to the protection of the interests of the 'coloured' people in South Africa, and their own views as to the advantages of belonging to the Brtish Empire will inevitably be tempered by the nesults of such actiori." On the other hand, Mr Roderick Jones, Reuter's agent in charge of 'in South Africa, defends the terms of the Constitution. "There is," he declares, "no organised conspiracy m South Africa to shut and lock the doors of civilisation against the native; only a determination not to push him f >rward beyond his capacity for progress, or in a way that might endanger hi n and the white man."

CHEAP FISH. It is curious that while we in New Zealand would eat more fish it it were cheaper, the people of Great

Britain do not take advantage of the enomous supplies of cheap food round their coasts. , Indeed, it is said that the very cheapness of fish at Home makes many people avoid it, To their mind it is associated with poverty and the workhouse. The consumption of fish in the Old Country is relatively so small that the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association has started a campaign to popularise fish-eating. It is pointed out that the kinds of fish Englishmen eat can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, and of the many other cheap and nutritious varieties they know, nothing. So prominent an authority as Sir James CrichtonBrowne has pointed out that the sea has provided the sole or principal animal nourishment of many races of mankind celebrated for their energy. Japan, with a population of about 47,00,000, employe over 3,000,000 people in her fisheries, while in the i United Kingdom, there are probably I not more than 200,000 people em- ! ployed in catching and curing l fish. It is stated that fishing boats are sometimes kept at sea so as not to land an unusually heavy catch when supplies are heavy, and so depiess the market, while good fish is sometimea actually thrown overboard. Clearly something is wrong, when there are many thousands of people with not enough to eat, and an abundant supply of cheap food not far from their doors.

THE TOURIST DEPARTMENT. We hoped that, when the Hon. T. Mackenzie took over the administration of the Tourist Department, he, with his unquestioned interest in the subject, and his experience of many of our chief scenic resorts, would be able to introduce some much-needed reforms, says the "Christchurch Press." So far as we can see, however, the Department is still blundering on in the same old way, wasting a great deal of money in wrong directions, and leaving undone the things most urgently required to be done. We agree with Dr. Findlay that the people of New Zealand have no idea of the value of the Mount Cook region as a national asset. The Government must share in this general ignorance, or they would certainly do more to develop such an.'asset