TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3133, 9 March 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

OUR POSITION. The last fourteen or fifteen years of Government control should have convinced the people, that the pationage of the Government overshadowing every department has been ihe curse of the colony. We have seen it grow up in front of our eyes, says the "North Otago Times," and we accepted it as one of the indication." that every man has his price, the price being mostly Government billets. With all its droughts and limited returns from the land, Australia ! s comfortably off, because it has refrained from borrowing and squandering money, whereas New Zealand, with all its wealth of returns, has grossly squandered its substaice, and is about to whip the cat. The country is sound and solid, but the pace of the G has not been properly regulated. THE TELEPHONE SERVICE. It is not many years since the service showed a loss on the year's working, and even now the return is so small that a very slight i icrease in expenses, unless accompanied by an increase in revenue, would convert it into a loss. The conditions of life in New Zealand have, however, changed considerably since the present telephone rates were fixed, the telephone has become less a luxury than a necessity. The Christchurch "Press" considers that the Postmaster-General has not recognissd that a more liberal policy might have served the public convenience without trenching on the public funds. The question of popularising the telephone' in outlying districts, by placing the service more within the reach of people of moderate means, is one to which Sir Joseph may well give some attention. PRISON REFORM. The most hopeful feature of the New Zealand prison system is the prison camp, which would have been showing good results before this if more judgment had been exercised in regard to it. It is plain that large numbers of prisoners who could more properly have been dealt with under strict discipline and hard labour in ordinary gaols have been distributed among the less hardened population of the camps, from whom it was supposed they were to be separated, remarks the Nelson "Colonist." No better means could have been selected to defeat the object for which the less rigorous and irksome system was instituted. This, and the extension of the principle of utilising prison labour in useful work in the country, are matters which the Minister has promised attention in connection with his scheme of classification. If the prison camp system is to have an opportunity of realising the anticipations which led to its institution, the speedy removal of the abuse alluded to is imperative. VALUE OF THE SUBMARINE. According to Vice-Admiral Sir Percy Scott, who is visiting South American ports with the British cruiser squadron, the matter of coastal defence is solved by the submarine. In the course of an interview at Monte Video, Sir Percy said:--"With two modern submarines there are no battleships in the world that could, i. get within a radius of 60 miles. The only expenditure necessary for the most perfect system of coast defence would consist of the cost of '

two submarines and the depots to keep them in." He went on to say that the great battleship is "necessary in the highest degree for purposes of attack or where distant colonies are to be protected, but where it is only a question of coast defence the submarines answer the purpose. At Portsmouth, for instance, submarines are used to guard the coast instead of a continual building of new forts, for the submarine possesses the double advantage of being mobile and comparatively inexpensive.