TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8292, 21 November 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The Otago Daily Times, writing on Are ■prevention,.says: Under the legislation of last session tbe maintenance of fire brigades npd the provision ot proteoton of life and property from fire are to be undertaken by Fire Hoards to be specially constituted for the purpose, while the water service necessarily remains under the control of the municipality. In this diviniriri of responsihility may be found oil the elements that usually make for tbe oreation of delay and conf usio.n. As it is the duty of the b ire Board to secure that the appliances and means that are at its disposal for the creventiou and extinguishment of fire shall be as efficient as can be providad, it may be thought that the cost, or a porti»n of the cost, of improving the weter service with that end in view would be a legitimate charge upon that body. But Parliament has omitted to provide the Fire. Boards witn powor to borrow money for expenditure upon an object of this kind or any other object.

The United States are again face to face with two problems which everyone knew were bound to oauee them trouble again at some time or another, says' the London Daily Mail. The most serious by far is the race question, which has broken out with great violence in the Southern States. Perhaps it is a necessary on too me of the posit'on into which the Sontb was foroed by tbe result of tbe Civil War, and if so, it la the more serious. It is a difficult question for Britishers and especially English meu to form an accurate judgment npou. In spite of an instinotive repugnance to mob law .there is in this oouutry a very large amount of sympathy with those who, in defence of their womenfolk, resort to measures which under ordinary circumstances would beuDJustiflable and destestable. The trouble originated in an organised attack upon the negro population of Atlanta, and this hss been followed by retaliatory measures on the part of the blacks so determined that a widespread raoe war seems well within the bouuds of possibility. The students of the coloured unl-

versitles are taking a leading part in tbe fighting, and already many lives have been lost, and the gaols are foil. In a striking article in the Monthly Review, entitled "The Quest of Prolonged Youth," Dr Carl Snyder draws attention to some extraordinary experiments made recently by Dr. Wolfgang Weiohardt, a German physician. The experimenter took a number of guineapigs, put them on a miniature treadmill and kept them going until they fell dead from exhaustion. Then be obtained from the fatigued muscles of these animals a juice or sap. When this sap was injected into the veins of unworked guinea-pigs they quickly showed all the outward signs of fatigue; they could make no effort, their eyes stuck out from their heads; in from 20 to 40 hours they died. Sap concocted from the consoles of freab, unworked animals had no such effect. The inferenoe from these experiments is that prolonged muscular activity produces in the muscles a poison, which, circulating through the body of the animal; causes its death. This poison is a definite substance, which injected into other animals has the same effect. It is evidently simiiiar in its action to the poisons elaborated by bacteria. Following up the analogy of anti-toxins, be has found that by injecting a very little fatigue toxin Into tbe veins of an animal he can inoculate it against fatigue. Animals, and even human beings, thus inoculated are capable of much more prolonged exertion than without it. Old age. is in .some sensa merely accumulated fatigue. Is it possible, Dr Snyder in effect asks, that treatment on lines similar to those of Dr. Weiohardt's experiments might go some way towards rejuvenating the exhausted organs of the aged, thus to a certain extent realising tbe mediaeval dreams of the elixir of life. The problem of imperial Federation is a subject that must at all times appeal to the intelligence and the imagination of thoughtful men as a fruitful tneme for discussion. The conception of a great Empire indissolubly bound together by the ties of speech, and blood and tradition, shared in common by all its members—this is an ideal which might inspire even the average unimaginative citizen with enthusiasm. But all who have thought seriously on this question have come to realise that in the case of tbe British Empire we cannot hope for the speedy attainment of suoh a result by artificial or arbitrary means. No [lmperial constitution imposed by England upon the constituent parts of the Empire would achieve its end; and no scheme of Imperial Federation yet devised seems to allow sufficiently for the independence of spirit and individuality of obaraoter that mark the growth of Canada or Australia. Accordingly we find that in recent years the thinkers who concern themselves with Imperial politics have come to. believe that tbe safest course for the component members of the Empire to take is to utilise every existing expedient fnr the consolidatiop of our joint interests, and to encourage by all possible means the recognition <of our mutual responsibilities. This is the idea behind the scheme for nn Imperial, Council elaborated some time ago by Sir F. Pollock, who proposed that tho Privy Council should be en larged ty representatives from the colonies. The advisers of the King would then be in direct personal contact with experienced colonial statesmen, and could thus frame our Imperial policy more closely in aooordanoe with the needs of every section of tbe Empire.