TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8206, 9 August 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Events in Russia are being precipitated by the commencement in St. Petersburg of a general strike, which is already extending to the railway systems of both St. Petersburg and Moscow, and may spread to all parts of the country. The obvious purpose of this revolutionary strategy is not oaly to embarrass the Gocern*nei.it by the suspension of transit and the disolooation of in dustry, but to concentrate the energies of the working masses in an at tack upon the autooraoy. Its weakness i 3 that in the very nature of things it cannot be long sustained, and that it depends for sucoess upon tho result of a sharp confliot with loyal troops. Which brings us again (s:iys the Auckland Herald) to the fact that in the hands of the army is the key to the position. If the army generally remains loyal to the Czaroccacy, the revolutionary uprising, which must acoompany a general strike, may be suppressed as similar uprisings 'have already been suppressed"; while if the troops gonerally incline to the popular party there may be a successful revolution.

It is a satisfactory consequence of the inclusion in the new Cabinet of men of the oalibro of those by whom Mr Duncan and Mr Mills have been replaced that the duties of administering the various departments of the State are to be much more evenly distributed under Sir Joseph Wari's guidance than they were during the latter years of Mr Seddon's Premiership, says the Otago Daily Times. Mr Seddon himself assumed the responsibility of the direct [conduct of everal important departments, while he also gave a more or less constant supervision to the administration of the departments that were nominally controlled by the less competent of his colleagues. By surrounding himself with a set of reasonably capable Ministers Sir Joseph Ward finds it possible to allocate the portfolios in such a way that the work of administration shall not press with undue weight upon any one of the members of the Cabinet.

In the course of a letter to the Government Biologist (Mr Kirk), a correspondent, writing from Johannesburg by the last mail, says:—"We have had very bad seasons since the war. In the Orange River Colony the

settlers have bad a most appalling time, and the bad seasons have crippled the bulk of them. Trie Government h°s beeH very generous, but its attempts to develop agricultural interest? have mut with the severest rebuffs. The late rains and loousts have played bavoo with everything. Here in the Transvaal the season has been very late, but the rainfall has been good. People who attempt agriculture in this part of the world must be prepared to oombat praoticaily everything and anything. One never knows. what is ooming next; and so it is with stock diseases. The people in New Zealand do not understand what a. grand and cleaD nomitry it is—two seasons' farming 'in South Africa would probably land most of them in a lunatic asjlum, certainly in the Bankruptcy Court. As an instanoe of what Jne has to pay in Johannesburg, 1 might mention that cauliflowers of aay size at present are 2s 6d, oabbages Is to 2s, lettuce 3d to 6d each, oarrois 3d a bunob, eggs 3s 6d to 5s 6d a dozen, milk 6d a bottle, beef nothing less than Is a pound, mutton 10J to Is 3d.

The Chicago revelations have served the good purpose of arousing interest in the purity of foods, and there ia little donbfc that any step in the direction of protecting consumers agi-ihmt the frauds of the adulterator would command general supporr. It is interesting, therefore, to learn from Australian papers that among tbe many projects with which MrSeddon busied himself during his visit to Australia, was a conference of health authorities, to cousidei the establishment of uniformity of standards for i'oorls. The actual proposal for a conference seems to have came first from l)r Ramsay Smith, chairaan of the South Australian Board of Health, who coomunioated to Mr SedrJou the gist of a circular letter receive.- from Mr Deakitt, asking fur State co-operation iu the matter of foods produced, and intended for consumption, in the Stales. As Dr Ramsay Smith pointed I out, this implied uniformity of standards, and that could boat be reached by a conference of health authorities, which he suggested might be held in New Zealand. Mr Seddon thereupon wrote to Mr Denkin, approving of tbe proposed conference as.likely to be "of great benefit, and tending to alleviate the sufferings of mankind," and suggesting that the Commonwealth Government should summon the conference. Subsequent communications from Mr Deakin to Mr Hall Jones, and from Dr Ramsay Smith to Dr Mason, led Mr Hall Jones to issue invitations totne health authorities of the Australian States, to a conference to be hold in Christohumh during the Exhibition. The replies have apparently yet to be received, but several of the States have agreed to the principle ot concerted action.