Hrvicw Of Reviews, Uiiis. PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. 



127 



also elicited the fact from Mr. Malin, 

 the President of the Wellington Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, that the Dominion 

 was not paying its wa}-. He based 

 his assertion on the fact that Xew Zea- 

 land's exports exceeded imports by 

 something like £^1,000,000, but there 

 were three millions a }'ear to pa\- for 

 interest on the national debt, and pro- 

 bably two millions in interest on local 

 bodies' debts. The interest bill was 

 thus probably about five millions a 

 year. The Acting-Minister of Finance 

 controverts this statement, but there 

 appears to be no doubt that Xew Zea- 

 land is passing through a period of 

 financial stringenc}-, largeh- due, say 



experts, to the great extravagance on 

 luxuries. 



The New American Ambassador. 



It is with peculiar pleasure that we 

 record the appointment of Mr. Walter 

 Page, the editor of the " World's 

 Work," in America, as the United 

 States Ambassador to Great Britain. 

 He succeeds the late Mr. Whitelav/ 

 Reid, who was also an editor. In this 

 connection, it is worth recalling the 

 rumours w^hich associated the name of 

 Dr. Albert Shaw, editor of the " Review 

 of Reviews " in America, with that post 

 some }'ears ago. And rumour is not 

 always a lying jade. 



[Topical. 

 THE CREW OF THE MELBOURNE— THE FIRST B.\TTT.ESHTP OF THE AUSTRALIAN NAVY. 



