TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8294, 24 November 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A circumstance of unusual interest vpbs the outoome of a cheque reoontly Issued by a Ohristahurch estate agent. Upon getting his statement a Dunedin client replied that ho had not leceived an amount shown as having been sent him the previous quarter. I ha banker was interviewed, and it was found that the obeque had been presented by a tradesman of a couutry town, tut the endorsement was a forgery. Though the cheque was payable to order, the bank disclaimed liability, alleging that, were they to stop to satisfy themselves as to the bona fides of everyone's signature on the back of a oheque, it would retard business. A detective elicited the in* formation that a gentlemanly-look-ing young fellow had presented the cheque to the oahsier ot tho trades-

man, stating that he was tba person to whom it was payable, and tbe tradesman, holding that it bad been cashed in good faith declined to re. | fund. A summons was ißsned, and the lawyers on both aides having argued the matter together'and cited various authorities, the defendant elected tu pay the claim and court 1 fees without taking tbe matter before l>the Bench. It appears, therefore, I that a better safeguard than making* I the cheque payable to order is to mark it noa negotiable, aud then anyone cashing it other than the party whom it is for, Will do so knowing that it is at his own risk. it is hardly to be expected that the amazing anarahy which is now running riot throaghuut tbe Russian Empire would pass without exciting those inclined towards anarchy in the civilised world. This undesirable mural intention is apparently at work, as the bomb throwing at St. Peter's, ia Rome, disgracefully testifies. Just what any shub per-, son can, hope to gain by injuring, this majestic in wbiob tbe love and faith of millions made possible the dream of the greatest Italian artists, it is impossible to perceive. In fact it is not. the act of a sane person, tut of one of thoae criminal lunatics whose perverse minds defy the of law-abiding people and whom it is problematic whether they should be consigned to pxison or asylum. Unfortunately the minds of many of the excitable and imaginative Latin race incline to tbe anarchy dootrines. For some years anarchism has been comparatively quiet. Whether its fury exhausted itself through the tempestuous period in which President MoKioley and other less constitutional rulers became its viotims, or whether it was cowed by the repressive measures taken against it, nobody has been able to explain. But if a recrudescence of anarchic violence is at band civilised States ought to take it| fur eranled that repression is the remedy, and stamp it out as rapidly as possible. Particularly in British counties, where wo are racially . free from anarchistic dinypathies, there should be no weakness shown in- dealing with it, in whatever form it may appear. v There have recently appeared in the French Press interesting accounts of the attempted occupation and exploration of the Western Sahara desert by French forces, coming on the one hand from Algeria and ou the other from the Niger. A year or two ago, before the respective spheres of influence or the different Frenoh possessions had been defined, a certain amount of friction resulted from tba rival adventures of native soldiers in French service entering the Sahara from the Niger, ani those ooming from Algeria. Now, however, that the respective snbsrßs of infiuenoe of Algeria and West Africa have been regulated, the camel v corps of both regions can fraternise cordially when they meet in "the heart of tbe Great Desext, that desert which is so rapidly being opened up now Jo our knowledge. The French have effected much of tbeir peaceful occupation of the J Sahara by means of well-equipped camel oorps. In the summer of this year, an expedition of camel cavalry undei Colonel Laperrine, . reached the salt mines of Taodeni, to tbe south of the desert of Igidi, where they found negroes at work quarrying the salt, which is spread all over tbe regions of Nigeria as a marketable product. The journey from the oasis to Tuat, however, was of an unusually arduous character. The little band of camel riders had to travel over several stretches of more than a hundred miles each without any pastiuago for tbeir beastp, and with ao water in the wells fit to drink. At a well called Taihaya, to the north of Taodeni, the drinking water looked and tasted extremely soapy, and was simply diluted poison. Everyone who dranb it swelled to a nponstrous extent, and although all the sufferers reoov&ed, they had to halt at this place several days uiitii tbeir bodies resumed normal proDortions .Three bottles of this terrible water have been sent to be analysed at Algiers.