TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3127, 2 March 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

PATENT MEDICINES

The members of the msdical profes•rion have such an aversion to com-mon-placH advertising themselves that ihey will not allow a member of their profession to have his name printed at the head of a race programme. Advertising to them is scarcely less heinous than the manufacture of patent medicines, says the "Lyttelton Times." But while they are denouncing the pillmakers and the newspapers with admirable frankness they do not make any serious effort to stop their wicked machinations. If there is a patent medicine that is doing all the harm that is attributed to it by the doctors, they should take the responsibility of warning the public, against its use. They, at least, should point out to the newspapers the enormity of their offence. The respectable journals have done their best to purge their columns of undesirable advertisements, but they cannot be expected to refuse legitimate basinsss simply because fee members of the medical profession say it is unwise to take medicine that has not been prescribed by one of themselves.

SOME LORDS ON DEFENCE. The fatherly approval of a few elderly peers of the New Zealand policy of "trusting to Mother" in the matter of protection from foreign aggression may be reassuring to Sir Opti-

mist Ward and others who have reasons for shirking the defence question, but it is a poor sort of consolation after all, says the Christchurch "Evening Mews." The payment of a microscopic portion of the coat of { the British Navy on the assumption that it will always be able to keep our coasts inviolate is about the foolishest and most unreasoning absurdity any sane person could be guilty of. While one Deer is patting us on the back for our annual cheque, another is carefully explaining that no combination of circumstances would justify the despatch ofa single vessel to the aid ot New Zeaalnd or anywhere else in time ot* war. In fact, everything afloat under the white ensign that has any fighting value must concentrate in the North Sea to protect the heart of the Empire, and when danger is entirely averted in this quarter it will be time enough to see what can be done for the outlying portions. So, at the best, it is a poor sort of protection that "Mother" is getting £IOO,OOO a year to guarantee. In fact, it is just about value tor tne money, and the country that thinks it can hire naval protection for £IOO.OOO per annum deserves the rude shock that is certainly awaiting