TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8224, 30 August 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Government accounts not being kept as are private accounts it is practiunlly impossible to say the exact ralue of the railway 'returns submitted to Parliament, says the Auckland Herald. We are told that the "net profit ou wurking" amounts to £728,000, and that this is equal to a return of 3.24 per cent, ou the £24,000,000 expended. But as nothing is set aside for depreciation, we are made very little wiser by this statement as to "not profits ou working."

Although the Alpine se:»son has only just opened (writes a Geneva correspondent on July 10tb), an unusually large number of accidents has already ooourred. In the majority of oases inexperienced climbers—sarcastically termed "mountain scratohers" by the Swiss—have been the victims. Several English tourists have met with mishaps. A movement has now been started to prohibit all persons attempting the of difficult mountains without g-ii los The largest number of accidents happen to inexperienced climbers who imagine they can dispense with the servioes of experts. The Swiss and Italian Alpine Clubs have decided to plaoe the matter before their Governments, with a view to the total suppression of the "mountain scratcher."

For a decade railway companies (says St. James' Budget) have nut accelerated speeds: the tendoucy is in the opposite direction. 'The average journey to Aberdeen now takes anything from eleven to fourteen hours. The electric railway seems destined to make the next great increase of speed. A German electric train haa travelled at the rate of 140 miles an hour, which eolipses the mile and a half or so per minute of the racing motor. This is all very wonderful; but mau iu thn glory of his achievement must not forget that lower in the scale of creation his efforts are quite outdistanced. A fly gets through the world at three miles u minujte, a homing pigeon at seventy miles an hour, a swallow at more than double the latter paoe, The swift, unwearying a<! apendy, says good-bye to Luglaurl in the morning, and takes its evening meal in its African quarters. But tlie fastest bird of all must surely be the Virginian plover. This extraordinary oreature, naturalists assure us, when travelling from! one country to another, does its journey at the j'ate of between GOO and 700 miles per hour. i*fter that the sunbeam—--186,000 miles a second. :

London news in the flies of the Cape Times to band, states that the recent Admiralty crisis over the original reduotion proposed in tbe Naval vote was very acute. Tbe Lord a of th* Admiralty threatened to resign, and Sir John Fisher's threatened resignation forced the peace party in the Cabinet to give way, because it was found that no admiral would be Killing to replace him if the reduotion in the vote was 'carried out. Particulars are also gitfen of tbe Admiralty meirorandutD on ( the new giant cruisers Invincible, Inflexible, and Indomitable. The vessels will oost £1,750,000 each. They will be of a tonnage of 17,250, and te forty feet longer than ihe Dreadnought. The new destoyer Swift will be a remarkable innovation, as Bhe will be 345 feet in length, equalling that of the battleship Nile. The displacement of tbe vessel will be 1,800 tons, and the engines, which will be of 30,000 horse power, will the vessel a speed of thirty-six knots per bour, making her the fastest vessel in the world.