CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 287, 26 April 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

| THE MOKAU MYSTERY. The Mokau mystery has been solved. Barry can now sleep in peace and not allow his dreams to be disturbed by Visions of some unknown challenger from an unknown place in New Zealand called Mokau, and possessing a river of which I he probably had never heard the name, ' even though it is famed far and wide in [New Zealand as a beauty spot. Moreover, had he not had to struggle hard to I'wrest the championship from one burly New Zealander, who originally hailed from a place as little known to the outside world as Mokau, viz., Akaroa and probably had already begun to conjure up homeric struggles to retain the bauble against this unknown sculler, who must have some renowned prowess to obtain backing to the extent of £IOOO. Why, what difficulty did not Barry have to contend with before he could secure the necessary backing from the British public in his own championship challenges? However, ho can once more breathe freely for although the challenge was real, the challenger is only a myth, so too is the £IOOO. It emanated in the brains of a few residents of the district of Awakino, a small settlement in the King Country, where hotel licenses are not, and who at a convivial meeting started an argument on sculling. One thing led to another, and the tightness of the money market evidently not being so stringent at Awakino, one member of the party spent the necessary hard cash and forwarded the cable, which has caused such consternation in rowing circles at Home. Why the joker did not fix upon the Awakino River, from alongside which the cable originated, as the venue of the championship passeth understanding.

BASE BOOKS. The "base books" which Sir Rider Haggard mentioned in a speech in Sydney have a gerater vogue in this country than many people imagine (says the Lyttelton Times). They are not the volumes which arc mentioned occasionally in the courts when the police are making an effort to prevent the circulation of pernicious literature. The book that is bad enough to attract the attention of a police officer is easily identified, and reputable booksellers draw a line which bars it from their shelves. The type of fiction that Sir Rider Haggard had in his mind is not openly indecent or immoral or blasphemous, but it may actually do more harm than would be effected by books which clean-minded people would lay aside in disgust, since its attack on the better instincts of the reader is insidious. It subverts noble themes to- ignoble purposes, overlays love and sacrifice with perverted sexualism and corrupts by implication and innuendo. Why the authors of these tainted books should nearly always b;, women is a problem of psychology which might repay consideration, but the immediate need is an awakening of the public conscience on the subject. The demand for fiction of an undesirable kind is growing in Christchurch as well as in the other centres of New Zealand and Australia, and there is arising a class of readers, containing a large proportion of young people, who have a keen appetite for the base currency of fiction. This is not a pleasant state of affairs.

BRITAIN'S LARGEST SHIP. It was announced the other day that the Cunard Company's new Atlantic liner Aquitania had been launched at Clydebank (Glasgow) in the presence of 100.000 people. The Aquitania is the largest vessel ever built in Great Britain. Her tonnage is 47,000 and her speed 23 knots an hour. The steamer will have accommodation for 3250 passengers and a crew of 1000. She will carry several motor lifeboats. Great secrecy has been preserved in regard to the details of the Aquitania, the idea, of course, being to prevent foreign rivals gaining any knowledge that they might turn to their own advantage. The Aquitania will be the largest boat in the British mercantile marine. Her length is 900 ft, which is also the length of the new HamburgAmerican liners Imperator and Vaterland. Over a million cubic yards of material will be removed from the river to permit of the Aquitania being taken out to the open sea. The equipment of the vessel is to be on a most luxurious scale, and Atlantic voyagers will find that in every minute detail their comfort and convenience have been studied. The giant liner will be practically an 11-storeyed floating palace. The decks will be connected by three elevators, and the first-class saloons on the upper deckwill have a length of 300 ft. On the saloon deck there will be a ladies' drawingroom, a smoking-room, a Ritz restaurant, and a large winter garden, which will be filled with fountains and plants. The following table shows the sizes of the world's chief liners:— Length, Ton-

feet, nage. Tmperator (Ham.-Am'can.) 000 50.000 Vaterland (Ham.-Am'can) 900 50,000 Aquitania (Cunard) 000 47,000 Olvmpic (White Star) .... 852 45,000 Mauretania (Cunard) ... 702 31,038 Lusitania (Cunard) 702 31,050 The Imperator will shortly sail on her maiden voyage. The Vaterland is now being built. The Titanic was 852 ft long nnd her tonnage was 46,328.