CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 305, 17 May 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

GOOD BIZ! I "It's like shelling peas to sell by advertising in your 'wanted' column when you have a good thing to oiler. Three < orders to build, four sections and one house and section represent our last | week's business."—Extract from a letter \ of a Taranaki Daily News advertiser. , QUAINT TOURISTS. * Two Dutch newspaper men have deserted their profession in order to see the world. They rejoice in the names ; of Piscuisse and BJoekziji, and since leaving their native Holland they have adopted street and concert singing as a means of earning the money to enable them to travel. A tourist who heard them sing, and contributed a mark to their exchequer, wonders what would Happen if all the groups which are now making the world tour in eccentric fashion were to meet. He recalls the fact that last year he met a man, his wife and a dog who had started for the end of the earth and return, and the couple were working their way by mending umbrellas. An American youth is making the trip selling newspapers, and a man, a woman and a donkey turned up in Vienna earning their travelling expenses by the vending of postcards. The wander-lust still moves men in strange ways. STRENGTHENING THE CABINET. Mr. Allen simply cannot do the work of three men, however willing and industrious he may be—that is, he cannot do it properly. He should be relieved, upon his return to the Dominion, of one of the three portfolios which he at present J holds. To whom that portfolio should be allotted is first of all Mr. Masfley'3 affair. But is is the country's affair ! also, and if Mr. Massey does not recog- : nise his responsibility towards the counI try in this matter, so much, in the long I run, the worse for him—Marlborough Express.

SIGNED ARTICLES. In the course of an interview at Auckland on his return from Australia, the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher said: "They make newspaper writers sign their articles in Australia while elections are on. It is a capital law. It has the merit, too, of keeping writers reasonably close to facts, and making them liable for their libels. We could do with some of that in New Zealand." What stuff and nonsense! Mr. Fisher knows quite well, or he should know, that it is the papers that keep the politicians in order, and not the writers. It is the papers that are liable for libel, as they properly should be, and not the editors. It is an insult to every journalist in the Dominion to suggest that the appending of his name to his article is necessary to keep him reasonably close to facts. We are afraid that Mr. Fisher's hobnobbing with the Labor leaders of Australia has either turned his head completely, or seriously distorted his mental vision.—Wairarapa Age. SUMMING THEM UP. "Hori" takes some snapshots for the Sydney Bulletin: After taking a long course of the Dominions Royal Commission, I sum the members up this way. , Britisher Lorrimer, Canadian Foster and Maorilander Sinclair ask the most sensible questions; Tatlow the fewest and , Garnett the least important. Newfoundland Bowring is the politest. Garnett is the most' bumptious and cross- , examines witnesses like a police court lawyer until he can bamboozle them to give the answers he requires. He is also the Beau Brummel of the crowd and , look 3 like Wilson Barrett in 'The Silver i King." Haggard is the fiag-wagger; he , uses the best language and asks questions spasmodically. Vincent is a typical big-gun English chairman and great at curbing too voluble witnesses. Donald Campbell (Australia) is the youngest. Vincent is the handsomest and Haggard the plainest. Haggard's trousers are a '■ sculpured nightmare. They resemble the trousers to be found on statues to , departed suburban mayors. He can put . them on to face either way and it makes . no difference. Secretary Harding upholds the dignity of Hold Ilingland. Ilis J attitude suggests a personal affront that , so much of the Commission's time should be wasted on mere colonials. ! DREADNOUGHTS AND SPEED. Some 6f the people who went to Lyt- > telton on Monday and waited uncom- • fortably for a Dreadnought which did ' not come were heard to ask why a huge " l ship capable of attaining a speed of some- ' thing like thirty miles an hour was not 1 able to keep an engagement despite un- ' favorable weather. The answer is quite f simple (says the Lyttelton Times). The 3 New Zealand could be driven fast 3 through a heavy sea if the need arose, 2 but the cost probably would include the r loss or destruction of many deck fittings, 3 as well as an abnormal consumption of • coal. A Dreadnought does not respond - readily to the motion of the sea. It 9 tends to cut through waves instead of r rising over them. The battle-cruiser <i Lion achieved a speed of thirty-one knots ■ on trial in a mountainous sea some f months ago, but sustained a very severe [• buffeting in the process. s CHIVALROUS JOURNALS, r s The London Daily Citizen, which rey presents the most ambitious attempt g ever made to run a daily newspaper in 0 Labor's interests, is in serious financial y difficulties. The journal is published every morning in London and Manchost ter, and within a year it has secured a g circulation of about 300.000 copies daily, .. while its news service is full and comI, prehensive. The policy of the Daily .. Citizen is socialistic, and it presents t'lie „ workers' case capably and vigorously, f But the Labor organisations which prnf mised support have not all been as good as their word, and last month the mana- . gers announced that they had funds e enough to produce the newspaper for c only eight more weeks, The Liberal , journals of London have generously pubp' lished appeals on behalf of their youth- „ ful contemporary. "When the Labor J organisations discover," says the Daily r Chronicle, "that inadequate flnnnical supv port has been followed by insufficient support of trade unionists as daily read- !_ ers they will no doubt come to the help j. of their own paper. The Daily Citizen f has proved a dignified and responsible 0 exponent of Labor, a good fighter of LaI, bor's battles, and a serviceable organ of the Labor party, and as such it fdls a I) special position in the Press of the conn . try." Probably there are sections of , the Labor Party who will see in this (r appeal evidence of a wicked alliance be(ween their leaders and the designing Liberals!