TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8203, 6 August 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Mr Maiden, director of the Sydney Botanical Gardens, reoently made some interesting remarks on the flora of the different countries as utilised as national emblems. "We, in Australia," said Mr Maiden, "have not agreed upon ,Ja national floral emblem. When we do, it will probably be the gum or wattle blossom. Those occur abund aotly in all the States, and it would never do to adopt as an Australian emblem a flower confined to one State, and perhaps to only a small portion of that. We have one of the most interesting and beautiful floras in the world, and it may be thpt the ohoiae of the emblem will direct the httention of every household throughout the land to our beautiful flowers."

It is probable, says the Melbourne Age, that when the representatives of the Victorian State and the Federal Labour parties meet iu conference to discuss land taxation,some aort of an arrangement will be made to prevent an actual conflict of programmes. There can, however, be nothing more than a friendly arrangement of a formal kind. The federal Labour party has no power to make any formal or written agreement with any one State La-

bonr party. The Inter-State Laboar Conference has laid down Federal land taxation as part of the Gotumon wealth Land polioy, and no State party or local political Labour Council Executive can inter-' fere with that decision. There hre not a few Labour members who hold that there should be only one land tax in Australian Federal imposition, and that the only solution of the present conflict is for the State parties to withdraw—at the next official conference—their looal proposals altogether. But this view is not shared generally. The present position is fraught with possibilities which may cause a considerable modification of the State Labour programmes at the annual oonferanoes in 1907.

According to a recent statement by a London correspondent, clerks in England are forming themselves into a union, with a view to obtaining parliamentary representation pro3uring proper remuneration for clerks, redress of grievances, regulation of hours, and abolition of overtime as a system. There is also serious dlsoontent amongst Wellington clerks. A Ohristchurob Press reporter made some enquiries as to the position in Cdristohuroh. Though juniors have to work for years before they receive a goon* living wage, what do juniors get?" said one of them. "They start at 15 or 16 years of ago at 10s a week, and are probably 30 years of age before they are worth from £l5O to £2OO a year. During his noviciate of 10 years, when he is getting barely a living wage, on which he usually has to keep himself, the clerk is expected to be well-dressed and smart, and if he is not ,he suffers in con sequence. When be enters an office he is expected to be well educated, and to be a good typewriting clerk, and possibly a good shorthand clerk. I say that all clerks are shamefully underpaid. The result is that many of them lose heart, and don't care. Others have financial worry, whioh prevents them from puttinc forth their best work. The hours of work are long, and the quality of work asked for is high. No man ought to reooive less than £IOO a year when he has been five years in business, and there ought to be an annual rise fur the next four years of 10s a week. After that what a man earns should depend on the particular genius he displays. I should say that £2OO a year ought to be the limit for the rank and file, who are not worth more."

Dr. A. K. Newman, of Wellington, who has made considerable research as to the reason why three fingers only are carved iu Maori images of deities, is preparing a paper on the subject for the Wellington Philosophical Society. At a meeting of that body, on Wednesday evening, he gave his general oonolusions on the subject. He stated that after study of the emblems of anoieut religions hehadaome to the conclusion that the three-fingered symbol was a recognised mark of divinity throughout the world. Every Old World religion had a trinity usually symbolised in human form by father, mother, and son, and also oontraoted for convenience into what might be called shorthand, '.thus the trinity was indicated by the priest holding up three fingers, and the three fingers were in turn represented by a sign like the capital E in various positions. Developments of this symbol were found in the trident of Neptune, the broad arrow of England, and the three feathers, the traditional emblem of Bohemia, now the crest of the Prince of Wales. In China when English ammunition marked with the broad arrow was first seen, the packets were handled by the natives with great reverence on account of their bearing a sacred symbol. The sign of the trinity was shown as copied from Etruscan vases, from Assyrian and Eygptian monuments, Indian and Japanese antiquities, from South Amerioan and African monuments, from the Easter Islands hieroglyphics, and was a univeral characteristic of Maori saored art. But more than this the three fingerel idol was practically universal in the ancient world, and still survived for religious emblems survived all manner of changes. Even an ancient English carving whioh had puzzled antiquaries, the Lincoln Imp, had this characteristic, and it was fouud on the figurehend of the ancient Viking canoe unearthed in Norway a year or two ago. That it was a saored emblem among tho Maoris was shown by the fact that carvings of mortals had always had the fingers and toes normal. It was of co use to go to the Maoris for 'he reason; that bad long b«en forgotten. Gnerally they would candidly admit, even though strictly following the old conventions, they did not know. The clue, he waa Hssured, could be found only in a collation of the sacred emblems of the saored world.