TOPICS of the DAY,

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 105, 2 May 1908, Page 7

TOPICS of the DAY,

. yt -■ - . . . -. . (From Our. Special _brresp-__eht.) LONDON, March 20. RtTDYRD KIPLING IN CANADA. .Mr. Kipling is. more like himself in the second of his "Letters to the TFamily" tha,n he was in the first of this series,' which is ap_aring weekly in the "Morning Post." Fortunately he has in this article got away from politics, which do not suit him at all. Instead of querulous sneers at the Liberal arid Labour parties, and gibes at England as a "lady in hysterics," he goes back to descriptive prose, of which he is a master. He. pictures very vividly the great spectacle of the Canadians "driving the great worldplough which wins the world's bread iip and up over the shoulder of the world." He describes the romance of the railways, the thirty-ton cars moving over three thousand miles of tracks, the. whole plant of a new civilisation. "One advantage of a hew land," he says, "is that it makes you feel older than Time. 1 met cities where there had been nothing—literally, absolutely nothing, except, as the fairytales say, 'the birds crying, and the grass moving in the wind.' Villages and hamlets had grown to great towns, and the great towns themselves had trebled and quadrupled. And the railways rubbed their hands and cried, like the Afrites of old: 'Shall we make a city where no city is;' or render flourishing a city that is desolate?* TKey do it too; while across the water gentlemen, never forced to suffer one day's physical discomfort in all their lives, pipe up and say: 'How grossly materialistic!'" ' Mr. Kipling gives us some characteristic images. He. tells of a young man whose business it is to "train avalanches to jump clear of his section of the track." Another man he met had for years and years inspected trains at the head of a heavyish grade in the mountains, where all the brakes are jammed home, and the cars slithed warily for ten miles. "Tyre-troubles there would be inconvenient, so Her, as the best man, is given the heaviest job—monotony and responsibility combined. He did mc the honour of wanting to speak to mc, but first he inspected his train—on all fours with a hammer. By the time he was satisfied of the integrity of the uhder-pinnings it •was time for us to go; and all that I got was a friendly wave of the hand—a master craftsman's sign, you might call it. Canada seems full of this class of materialist." "I wonder, sometimes," he adds, "whether any eminent novelist, philosopher, dramatist, or divine of to-day has to exercise half the pure imagination, not to mention insight, endurance, and self-re-straint, which is accepted withbut comment, in what is called 'the material exploitation' of _, new country." VI.VOUS WORLD. Australia prides itself on being a wineproducer, but she is really "very small potatoes" indeed compared with other 1 sources of supply. Last year nearly four thousand million gallon's of a good deal of the "alleged wine" brand mo doubt—were produced throughout j the world. Of this tremendous quantity | Australia is credited with an output of i less than six million—s,94O,oooi to give I the figures of Mr. George Thome's reI port-—gallons, less than three two-thou-sandths of the world's total supply. Where does the rest come from? Well, France leads the way with over one million, four hundred and fifty thousand gallons, and Italy is a good second with over one million, one hundred and fifty thousand gallons, and Spain is a modest third with 462 million gallons to her credit. There is a big drop to fourth position, which is occupied by Algeria with nearly 189} mililon gallons, Portugal following with 99 millions. Austria with 77 millions, Hungary with 68 millions, and Roumania and Russia—this will surprise most people—tie for eighth place with no less than 57 million gallons apiece. The Russian figures will startle even experts, for she has never been seriously considered as a viticiiltural country. Bulgaria and Chili b6th produced over 46 million gallons of wine last year, Germany nearly 42 millions, the United States over 35 million gallons, and Turkey (with Cyprus) 33 millions. The Argentine Republic figures afford another surprise, for Mr. Thome credits that country with having produced over 28i million gallons, whilst Greece and Switzerland make gallant shows for their size with 'nearly. 27 millions and 20 millions respectively. Servia with 12 millions, Brazil with 7 and Tunis with 6J million gallons alsb precede Australia in the list in which the Commonwealth occupies 21st place, just beating little Corsica, which, in turn, whips the Cape, by a margin of over one million, three hundred thousand gallons. The Azores, the Canary ' Islands and Madiera contribute between them 3,300,000 gallons, Luxembourg, 2,300,000, Peru over 2 millions, Uruguay just under two millions, Bolivia rather more than half-a-million, and Mexico a modest 362,000 gallons to the world's gigantic annual win. draught. Australian vignerons sighing for fresh avenues for the distribution of their output, may well despair of the outlook. Well nigh every civilised country is producing wine in increasing quantityevery year, and in many cases are even now making much morfe than is required for home consumption. What a pity it is that the Heathen Chinee and the wily JFlindoo do not take to wine bibbing. If the teeming millions of China and India could only be persuaded to indulge in the juice of the grape what a magnificent market would be opened up. \ As things arc and seem likely to be it looks as though the wine growers of the various countries will presently be reduced to following the example of the inhabitants of a certain island, who were said to earn their living by taking in each other's washing.