TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8237, 15 September 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The Cape Times publishes an article describing railway and mining development in Northern Rhodesia. It dwells on the energy with which the Oape-to-Oairo line is being pushed forward to Broken Hill. Ihe bridge over the Kafue, the biggest river in South Africa, was ereoted within the space of six months. The plateau of North Kafue is described as a wonderfully rioh agricultural country of great mineral wealth. Tne lead and zino mines are already being worked, and are expected to produce 500 tons of ore daily. The eopp«r mines further north will soon be reached, as the survey is now in progress. The Rhodesia railways evidently mean to capture the traffic in oonneotion with the copper fields of the Congo Free State. The article does not anticipate that a railway from Lobito Bay to those fields will be built, owing to the enormous length of the line and the cost of the work. A* great development of Northern Rhodesia is expected to result from the" railway extension. The committee which was appointed by the Sydney Labour Gounoil to inquire"iato the alleged existence uf a system of sweating in many business plaoes of the city, and various phases of industrial life, presented its report some weeks ago. It was stated that the evidence hrought forward showed uumistakably that sweating of a pronounced character obtained in the city. The committee was strongly impressed with the urgent necessity that existed for legislation of such a character as would minimise, if not wholly remove, the evil. The ques tion was brought up at a recent meeting of the Sydney Labour Council. Several speakers stated that the information at their oommaud would fully justify them in requesting Parliament to appoint a Royal Commission to investigate the terrible conditions under which many adult people worked. It was resolved that the Labour Party should be asked to meet the committee in oonfereuce, so that the matter could be brought before it, with a view to its moving for the appointment of a Royal Commission. In "The Dead Heart of Australia," Professor J. V. Gregory, formerly of Melbourne, and now oE Glasgow University, disputes the current theory that the Australian artesian water supply is from underground rivers—rain water force.l upwards by hydrostatic pressure. Ho advances a counter theory, that the underground supplies ure "pockets" of water imprisouon by igneous action, and when an outlet is provided sent to the surface on the principle of a squirt by the pressure of laud rocks. The praotioal difference of thn theories is this—that on the new hypothesis the supply is practically a fixed quantity which is suffering exhaustion from every bore that is opened. Professor Gregory has bee'i elaborating his view for several years, and his was foreshadowed iu a lecture delivered five years ago, but it finds little favour from scientific) authorities. Dealing with the proposal to endow education from the Crown lands of the colony, the school inspectors' report from Marlborough suggests that there would probably be little dissatisfaction with an endowment in aid of free text books. Iu America, the report states, it is by Act mandatory in twelve States that books should be provided free. Throughout the Union ninety-two cities of over 20,000 inhabitants find it possible to provide free books. Philadelphia is a city of 1,293,697 people. It began to supply free books in all grades of the public sohools in the year 1818. The total amount of land donated to the sereral States of the Amerioan Union for educational purposes sinoe 1785 is 78,659,439 acres, which is more than the area of New Zealand. Dr Harris gives the American view of this matter:—-"We are making the experiment of self - government, government of the people by the people, and it hag seemed a logical

conclusion to all natioua of all timea that the rulers of the people should hare the best education available. Then it follows that the entire people of a democracy should be educated, for they are the rulers." The argument, concludes the inspector, loses nothing of its force by being transplanted to New Zealand. Mr W. J. Napier, who has been on a flying visit to Sootland, has (says the Lyttelton Times) written a letter to the Glasgow Herald advocating the cutting up of the land on the liuea of the New Zealand Lands for Settlement Act. "What particularly struck mo," he says, "was the truly awful -jouditions uuder wbch the poor live in Glasgow and Edinburgh, anl the deserted condition of the land in the rural districts and its monopoly by a few individuals. 1 have never seen before human beings herded together iu suoh insanitary surroundings as thousands are in the 'closes,' •entries,' and 'oourts' of your twc principal cities. On the other band, I have never seen, even in 8 sparsely-populated colony, so fen people living upon and cultivating the soil. I understand that the peopk have been swept off the laud by the landlords in order to make room for deer. If so, a terrible blundei has been made. A deer is valueless as a flqhtiug machine, a human being can defend his country. And, depend upon it, if the British 1 Empire is to be kept by Britons it will have to be fought for sooner or later. There are those across the North Sea oasting covetous eyes on the great domains of Britain, and it behoves us all to see in time that the conditions exist for rearing a healthy, vigorous race. The hungry, unclean, anaemic dwellers in the dens of your cities have notr the stamina in them for soldiers."