TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9197, 23 April 1910, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

During the last week or so the late Trade Commissioner, Mr Home John Holmes, has been Markets, visiting Palmerston in connection with the development of his own business and its extension to London, which he is about to revisit. "With all the experience Mr Holmes has gained in the wool, grain, hemp, frozen meat, butter and cheese trades, it seems a pity that he has not been engaged to investigate and report upon these markets as he did in 1897 as Trade Commissioner with such marked success. The combination of flaxmillers could have secured his services probably at a minimum cost to obtain a report that would be of considerable value not only to them but to the Dominion at large. We know of his ability to place before Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade the many advantages New Zealand possesses, and he could speak upon exports and imports with an authority that must carry conviction to those interested in the over-sea markets.

Of the famous Garrick it was said that "his death would Mark eclipse the gaietv of naTwain. tions." With how much greater degree of truth, asks a well-known writer, can it bo said of Mark Twain that the entire English-speaking world owes him a j debt of gratitude for the wealth of clean and wholesome humour which S has poured forth from his fertile brain and busy pen' during a literary career which began as far back as 1867. Mark Twain was never merely a jester, a fun-maker. Humour and satire were weapons which in his hands were over used to attack cant of all kinds, or to expose and castigate national and private hypocrisy and _ wrongdoing. In private life he gained the esteem and affection of a host of notable men in England, Italy, Germany, and other countries besides his native land, and there is probably no other writer of modern times whose name is better known and between whom and his myriads of admirers there existed a feeling so akin to personal friendship. The news of his death to-day will, therefore, be read with wide regret, though he leaves to posterity a rare legacy in his books.