TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3058, 1 December 1908, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A GOOD SUGGESTION. According to the H'<n. T. Y. Duncan, a sum of something between £6C,000 and £70,000 was lost to the Dominion last year throrgh butter which shoulcT have been first grade, turning out second grade. A leading dairy authority informed us ("Manawatu Times") the other day that owing to the condition of some of the dairies the milk was so contaminated that it went sour and spoiled the milk from the clean suppliers, so much so that it was impossible to follow out the dried milk process "with it and that butter graded new went back after it was graded. The aggregate loss to the industry he described as enormous, and said that the only way to prevent it would ne to keep the butter some time before grading, and then the low grades would compel the factories and farmers to deal drastically with offenders. THE SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP. In a ncte for the sculling match for the championship of the world, the "Wanganui Chronicle" states that the champion's many supporters are as confident as ever of Webb's victory in the approaching race. His hand is all right again, and he is once more in hard training. He has gone into camp at Kaiwhaike, and his progress will be watched with much interest. Arnst's supporters, too, are daily becoming more confident, and are more than pleased with the vigor he puts into his rowing, which is daily improving in style. The challenger has a spin twice daily with Fogwell, and goes through good, steady, practice. More than one wager at fair odds has been offered and taken that Arnst will lead from start to finish. The great question for this month, however, is will weight and power prove too much for skill and science? i FARMERS IN PARLIAMENT. In no particular aspect of the result of the general elections been is there anything so striking as the success of the farming elements, says the "Feilding Star." Parliament has rarely, if ever, been so strongly representative of the man on the land as is the new Parliament; and the Farmers' Union now has amongst its members quite a number of men thirteen, it is stated—who sit above the salt at the national table. Included in this lit+le list are: Mr R. Scott (Tuapeka), who is Otago's provincial president of the Union; Mr L. R. Phillipps (Waitemata), ex-provincial president of Auckland; Mr Edward Newman (Manawatu), the Union's legislative watchdog; Mr D. H. Guthrie (Oroua), a member of the Wellington provincial executive and Messrs Massey, Herries, James Allen, and Lang are members of the Union. Mr Buxton (Geraldine) was brought up on a farm, Mr Clark (Chalmers) is the son of a sheepfarmer, and Mr

Nosworthy (Ashburton) is a farmer —just to mention a few that readily come to mind. There is certainly the making of a strong Farmers' Party in the new Parliament. TELEGRAPH VISION ON THE VELDT. In the "Occult Review" is a stcry of a car-driver on the tramways of Croydon, as taken down from his lips by a correspondent. The cardriver was serving in the Grenadiers, under Lord Methuen, in the South African campaign, and after the Battle of Magersfontein he was put on sentry duty at about midnight. After half an hour he was seized with trembling fits, and could not ke°p his gaze from two large boulders of rock some 4ft in height:—"l thought I saw a form of some kind between the boulders. I jumped to the conclusion that it was a soldier. In one second it had vanished. 1 challenged, but got n.) answer. Those pieces of rock seemed to terrify me. I advanced towards thtm, but saw nothing; I retired back and took up my position, leaning on my rifle. My eyes went again to the same place, and there, standing between the two boulders, was the outline of a woman. I brought my rifle to the present, covering the form which stood before me. I saw her walk from one piece of rock to the other. I watched and saw her repeat her action; she then stopped and leaned up against one of the boulders with her back towards me. I again advanced to where she stood. When I had got to within 40yds or 50yds of her, I saw her turn round and look straight at me with a careworn and sorrowful face. Then I saw and knew who she was. It was my own mother. I was not mistaken, for she walked within a few yards of me, at the same time locking me dead in the face. She then turned aboutTand walked to]the two pieces of rock, and I saw r.o more of htr. About three weeks after I received a letter from home telling me of her death and burial." The correspondent adds that this mother was a woman of good birth and education who married much beneath her in life. The car-driver is still sometimes influenced by the invisible world, but fights against these experiences. TURKEY'S NEW ERA. Everyone knows the secluded life a Turkish lady has La:] to lead up to the present. With the new Constitution, however, and its reforms, life is going to be changed for tl.ose who have been kept in the background for so long. "Freedom, absolute freedom," were the words used by a Turkish lady recently when asked whst difference the Constitution would make in her life. So far they have been allowed t« receive their lady friends, call on them, and go for drives, but there was no freedom in this life, and even when driving they had to be closely veiled. The vail will not be done away with, but a lighter one will be worn, and this will be more often lifted. Gradually, as time goes on, the veil will disappear, at least this is the present opinion, but now it would not be understood, especially by the uneducated class, just the same as if ladies started at once going about with their husbands to public functions arid amusements. At present the only knowledge the Turkish lady has of the outside world is what she has read in books, and what s-he has heard from her foreign sisters, but in the future the women folk will be allowed to travel. Gradually they are to enjoy a more interesting life, they will go about with their parents and husbands, they will see different countries, will be able to mix more with people, and get to know something about the world as they see it for themselves, and not have to rely on hearsay. Very few Turkish ladies have ever been away from the place they were born in; a few have got away, and under the old regime would not have been allowed to return, but now that is all changed, and in future wives will go abroad when their husbands are sent. Later on, no doubt, children will be sent away for their education. The present dress will only undergo a slight modification. Instead of the shapeless out-of-door cloak, th 6 Turkish lady can now wear well-fitting dresses, or jackets and skirts.