TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8320, 28 December 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Canada is filling up very fast. To prove this, there is the evidence of the eyes, of loaded trains, of homestead entries, of land sales, of busy merchants and manufacturers. Most accurate of all are the immigration returns. In th|§ fiscal year ended June' 30th, 1905, a high record for immigrants was announced. The optimist said, "We will beat that next year;" the pessimist'answered, "There were unusual circumstances, beware!" The returns for the year ended June 30th, 1906, are now in, and thte result give the honour to the optimist;. One hundred thousand immigrants in a single year was a good record. Thajs; was in 1905. The tale for 1906 is thirty-one thousand greater. To be strictly accurate the figures are 102,723 and 131,268.

Fresh particulars are being brought out (says a London correspondent) regarding the suggested new mail route between London and New Zealand via'Salina Cruz, Mr E. F. Wright is still interesting liimself actively in the matter, and is in active correspondence with the promoters. According to the latest statement put forth in this connection, passengers and mails could be conveyed between New York and Salina Cruz by rail in four days, and thence to Auckland in thirteen days by 20-knot steamers constructed to steam 22J knots, in case of time requiring to be made up. It is reckoned under this time-table only two steamers would be needed, and each would have live clear days in each terminal port. This, ofcourse, assuming the service to be a three-weekly one. The suggestion is that the New Zealand Government should negotiate with the Mexican Government, with a view to the new mail-line via Mexico being adequately subsidised by the latter country, which Mr E. F. Wright expresses confidence, as the result of enquiries on the spot, would be arranged without difficulty, as it would be the means of vast benefits accraing to Mexico through the influx of tourists and otherwise. It is estimated that the through fares between London and Auckland by this route would be as low as £SO to £6O first-class.

Of the 5,559 teachers in the Public Instruction Department (says the

Sydney Daily Telegraph) only 1 per cent, receive more than £3OO a year. Ten per cent, are paid over £2OO, and 68 per cent, less than £l5O. This state of affairs, viewed in the light of the recent re-grading of the public service, furnished a fruitful source of discussion at a recent sitting of the Public Schools Conference. The general feeling seemed to be that the service was the last that any young person of ambition should seek to enter. By means of a coloured diagram, Mr E. J. M. Watts, the treasurer of the association, showed that the positions of higher responsibility and emolument were few compared with the number of certificated teachers competent to fill them, and very depressing pictures were drawn of the circumstances in which the teachers of the majority of small country schools have to live and bring up their families. Stress was laid on the fact that although the occupation is a professional one, requiring in those who fill it more or less high qualifications, the remuneration in the main is on anything but a scale of professional liberality. Several speakers argued that the new regulations for the training of teachers practically closed • the doors of the Education Department on the children of the poor man. ,