TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8271, 26 October 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

With a few days to go before the opening, the condition of things at the Exhibition is anything but satisfactory, says the Ohristohuroh Truth, and tbe stranger who did not know the opening ceremony was fixed for Thursday week might be excused for imagining the interesting event to be about two months furtner off. To U9O a hackneyed phrase, the interior of the Exhibition is a scene of bustle and confusion, and even if the employers work day and night from now onwards a number of the exhibitors will not be ready for the raising of the curtain. But tbe probable unpreparedness of the exhibitors is not by any means the most disquieting feature about tbe»big snow. The dust and ventilation problems hare attained such formidifcle proportions that these agencies threaten to mar the whole Exhibition, and the situation is one that calls for prompt and decisive ac'ion.

No douVit West Australia hns a grievance against the Federal Government in the matter of the transcontinental railway. But we need not accept in tbe literal sense all that Sir John Forrest haß to say about the necessity for constructing this "desert" line. Appparently South Australia actually promised to arrange for the passage of such a railway through its territory; and Sir Frederick Holder will find it difficult to evade Sir John Forrest's demand for a satisfactory reason for the neslect of this pledge. And we may further conoede that when tbe Federation was still in progress one of the inducements constantly held out to West Australia to enter the union was the prospect of being connected witb trie enstorn States by this trans-continental hne. Ail Lhis, of course, constitutes a strong moral claim for the Westralians upon Sontti Australia and the Federal Government. But it does not by any means follow that West Australia, in Sir John Forrest's words "might just as .veil be an island in the Indian Ocean as be ia her pretsont position." Still less does it follow that federation is, even from trie Western standpoint, "a delusion, a sham, and a larce." For, even if West Australia must for the time do without its much-desired railway, the coutmcent advantages of federation are so numerous and so substantial ti:ut there is no prospect of suooess for any attempt at secession.

It was a singular coincidence that «ir William Steward's eulogistio reference in the House recently to Sir Joseph Ward's service at the Postal conference at Rome should be followed, within half an hour by the Premier's gratifying announcement that the United States had signified its willingness to accept, without surcharge, letters from New Z&alnad bearing a penny Admirably as Sir Joseph represented this colony at the Conference, his tost work wcrk was no doubt his strong effort to promote the movement in favour of universal penny postage, in which New Zealand has played so worth/ a part. Ho failed to carry bis point, but bis earnest a:ivooncy of the reform did much to help it forward, and to' carry conviction -to quarters which hitherto viewed the proposal with indifference. We may perhaps see in this latest step by the United States the effeot of the stimulus given by Sir Joseph Ward to postol reform. The American Postmaster-General has not, of course, aocepted the principal of penny postage in its entirety; that is to say, though we in New Zealand can corresoond with America under the penny rate, the people of tbe United States will still have to pay the present charge, but his action is of decided benefit to this colony, and it removes tbe ridiculous anomaly that wnilo letters from this colony to San Franoisoo had to carry twopence halfpenny, letters passing through San Franoisoo to London only carried a penny.

In spite of internal strife the Government of Russia continues to act as a great world-Power and to be treated by foreign countries as though its future wore r aseured. In pursuance of this diplomacy convention of ignoring nil civil broil, tlie treaty-making influence of King Edward has apparently exerned to bring about a pncifiu adjustment of differences between Russia and England which might lead to serious trouble if left ir. a state of uncertainty, says the Auckland Herald. These differences all relate to India, its frontiers, and its approaches, and it is stated that they have been arranged by a mutual give-and-take. The suggestion that the navigation of the Dardeuelles is to fee permitted to Kui-sian warships in exohauge for an agreement of non-intervention in Tibet, and of the limitation of the Russian sphere to thw north of Persia, will excite discussion and criticism if it

proves to be correct. Hut the United Kingdom baa long since ceased to regard the existence of the Empire as dependent upon the oloaing of the Dardanelles to Ruseian ships and upon the exclusion of Russian troops from Constantinople l ). To bring under an internationallyrecognized suzerainty the various States that lis around Hindostan is now the leading ambition of our Indian policy. To attain this aim by pacific negotiations would mean so very much to our Imperial diplomatists that they would pro bably make important concessions to secure on this point a satisfactory arrangement with Russia. In any case the removal of oauses of possible quarrel mast receive general approval, and no monarch has done more for his oountry in this good direction tban King Edward has done for bis and ours.