TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8165, 23 June 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

St. Helena is threatened with ruin —•in the view 'of the innabitants, according to a letter from a corres-. pondent to the London Daily Mailby the withdrawal of the garrison, which will take place in the autumn. The colony is one of our oldest, and is, of course, important as " a oable station, while its value woold be enormously increased in the case of' war and the closing of the Suez Canal. Germany, according to the islanders, would like to possess it, and one of her ships was surveying there in March. Our correspondent deolares that the expected retrenchment of £IO,OOO to £12,000 a year by withdrawing the troops is illusive. On tbe other hand, merohants and farmers in the island exist for the troops, and will in a few months become bankrupt; they will have no one to sell to. Roads and telephones are kept up by the military; there iB no local industry. The coloured people will starve, adds the correspondent, the "tbe poor Africans (some of whom were born in slavery, and all of them the descendant's of slaves, released by the benevolence of England), will have cause to regret she ever took them under her protection.",

The Cook Islands correspondent of the Auckland Star reports that a largely-attended meeting of native fruitgrowers and shippers was recently held at Raratonga, when the Resident Commissioner, Lieu-tenant-Colonel Gudgeon, spoke on the question of the exportation of fruit to New Zealand, in the course of his remarks the Resident Commissioner pointed out that the welfare of the Cook Islands depended very much on the price that they received for their fruit. Hitherto Auckland had been tbe port with which they had traded, but the Government of New Zealand now intended that there should be a second steamer direct to Wellington. The service to Wellington would bring them into more direct touoh with threefourths of the people of New Zealand, and tbe natives mast do all on their part to make the new service a success. By having a seoond steamer the islands of Atiu, Maulse, and Mitiaro would be able to send their fruit to New Zealand, besides which there would not be the competition of the Tahiti fruit, which was carried by the Auckland boat. He therefore advised the natives to send to New Zealand only the best fruit, so as to ensure good prices being obtained. Tbere was a reasonable chance that the New Zealand Government would grant a bonus on fruit from the Cook Islands, but suoh bonus would be payable only on fruit of the very best quality.

A day or two ago, says the Lyttelton Times, we mentioned some of the curiosities of the German law providing for the protection of the Emperor against slander and disloyal suggestion. The purpose of the law is no doubt excellent, sinoe it' is aimed against any words or aation that would bring the Government of the State into disrepute, or wbuld discredit the ruler.. But in praotioe the subtle distinction between people and their officers In never drawn, and the Kaiser's agents go perilously close at times to eaaking their Imperial master uupremely ridiculous by the charges whioh they bring against insignificnt people. But the limit of absurdity would seem to have been reached in the case mentioned in a'cable message received on Thursday, when the Appeal Court at Leipsio confirmed the sentence on al journlist who had been obarged with libelling the anoestors of the King of Saxony. He was sent to prison for publishing several articles in his paper dealing with the Kings of Saxony, who played prominent parta in the history of their country oenturies ago. In passing sentence on the journalist, who did not write the articles, the Court intimated that be had aggravated hie offence by publishing them at a time when feeling ran high regarding the electoral laws of k "ony, and by the u&e uf an "odious a.. malicious style."

The gasoline motor, which, according to the prophets, is to prove so serious a rival to the railway companies in the near future, Is at the present time doing them considerable

service. Many of the English railways are running motor-oars aa "feeders" for those stations which serve scattered districts, and these oars ran regularly in connection with certain trains bringing passengers from the outlying places. In America an experimental oar has been constructed by the Union Pacific Bailroad Company to ran on the ordinary. traob, and it hag proved such an unqualified success that the company, have now constructed a 8800tid oar of a similar type, bat very maoh larger size. In appearauoe it is a very different thing from the road oar, whioh may perhaps be regarded as its parent, for it is a massive structure of the tize and solidity of an ordinary American railroad carriage, pointed In front to minimise the wind-pressure, and fitted with the approved form of cowcatcher. It is 55ft in length, weighs 28 tons, and provides seating aocommodaton for 57 passengers. It is lighted with 25 aoetylene gaslights, and the interior is finished in antique mahogany and leather, and warmed by the water circulating system which cools the engine. The engine is a six-cylinder gasoline engine of special construction, for railroad purposes, and of one hun dred horse-power. On.the trial trio a maximum speed of 63 miles was attained and kept up for a considerable time.

A correspondent of the Brisbane Worker complains bitterly of the way in whioh the State managed sugar mills of Queensland are oonduoted. He says:—"'When the Government foreclosed on certain oertral mills there was a splendid opportunity opened to demonstrate the benefits of Socialism. It was well-known to those in the industry that some of these mills had not been worked on scientific methods. The mills taken over by the Government were up-to-date and comparatively new. But the Government management has been a by-word of reproach throughout the sugar district*," The State mills, he goes ,on to say, pay the cane-suppliers lower average rates than axe obtained from those under private management, and "the value of the sagar obtained, per ton of .oane crushed, has been lower at the Government mills than in the other central mills not controlled by them." There does not seem anything very unusual in Had the results been reversed it would have been remarkable.