CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 22, 26 June 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THEN AND NOW. The Reformers complain that some person or newspapers unnamed have heen accusing the Hon. James Allen of having offered an expeditionary force to the Mother Country in the hope of securing a title. The suggestion, if ever made, would have-been a very silly one indeed, but why should the Reformers grow so indignant about it? They did not- hesitate during the last election campaign to insinuate that Sir Joseph Ward had made the offer of a Dreadnought to the Mother Country in order to obtain a baronetcy. They used to refer in tones of quite affectionate admiration to Mr. Seddon and Mr. Ballance, the men who had "scorned" to accept honors and'titles, and point a contrast in the case of their successor. If the suggestion was "cricket" then, why is it "slander" now ?—Lyttelton Times. LAND VALUES. It is fortunate that, with the exception of the Taranaki and Manawatu districts, and possibly a portion of the Auckland province, values have not been unduly inHated. Even in these districts the speculative buyer would be chiefly hit in the event of a slump. So far as the Warrant pa is concerned, values have not reached a point at which a fall in prices of a single produce would spell disaster to the. owner. Unlike Taranaki, the settlers of this district have not the whole of their eggs in one basket. They do not live by milk alone, nor is their future entirely dependent upon wool or mutton. We have, such a variety of fanning that if one industry should fail there are others that can take its place.—Wairarapa Age. TUKATMEXT OE 1N T EIIRIATES. j The prospects of success in the ease of a reformatory for the inebriates. » reformatory being distinguished from a retreat where the authorities have no power to compel the inmates to work, or even to take, necessary exercise, must surely be absurdly remote. The problem to he faced at Roto Roa.must be bad enough without the emergence in an acute form of the difficulties which contributed to the failure of an experiment much nearer to Dunedin—Otago Daily Times. "THE COW." Klbert Hubbard, who i* contemplating a lecturing lour through Australia and New Zealand, devotes one of his latest •'heart-to-heart talks" with the Philistines of his (lock to "the cow," a subject with which he claims a lifelong acquaintance and certainly treats with delightful freshness. "The cow," he says, to quote one of the opening paragraphs of the talk, "is a mammal. She gives milk, and this milk, as far as Mature is con-' e.criicd, has but one purpose, and that is to teed the calf, lint man appears on the scene, and. taking advantage of the cow's maternal ■instincts, hangs on it

iinil appropriates the miiii. Occasionally cows have twin calves, and my opinion is tliat sonic lime ago, geologically, twin calves were the rule and not the exception- —this for tile reason that tin; average cow supplies enough for two. When twin calves are hum, i( will he noticed that these calves appropriate the lunchcounter, one on either side, and get busy to the great satisfaction of the cow and the delight of the calves." Natural history written'in this racy style might not meet with much favor from the educational authorities, hut it would make popular reading with the school children.