THE CUTS TOILERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 49, 26 August 1907, Page 3

THE CUTS TOILERS.

WELLINGTON'S INDUSTRIAL LIFE. THE MATCHMAKERS. An investigator does not have to travel far in Wellington before finding ' that the city's toilers are giappling with • many other materials besides wool and ' iron, which were refer rad to in a, pre- ' vious article. There are many hives of 1 industry here, and among the most in- ■ toresting is v match factory in South ' Wellington. ' There are probably more than 130 matchmakers here, but that is tho num- ' ber recorded at a wax-vesta factory in ' Ncwtown. The employers there have ] tho same trouble as the proprietors t;f : woollen mills. Girls, very useful work- ! ers, will persist in leaving to be mar- ! ried. In the case or the "woollen mills this fact may be surprising, for the 1 average porson would fancy that a girl ! who was handling worsted al' day would ' not sigh for darning, but in the New- ' lown establishments it is natural that ] & girl's thoughts should be turned to love, because the factory turns out a million reminders a day. A couple of ' months ago it was shown in the Post that a girl, " willing, energetic, and • consistent," could earn 'up to £2 a 1 "week in these light tasks, but applicants i for the prizes were not plentiful, and ' there is the same dearth of candidates ' to-day. DIVISION OF LABOUR. Sometimes a smoker may wonder, between puffs, why he gets so many . matches for a penny. They cannot bo made for the money, hs convinces liim- [ self, and . may have a suspicion that they sprout on a shrub like thorns on a gooseberry bush or are plucked from some marvellous animal or the mandayille type. Matches are cheap because it takes many persons to make them, and the paradox has the explanation of numerous other articles, such as Sins and needles, ft is a case of ths ivision of labour and machinery. Yesterday a reporter, saw a headless match thirty miles long. It was not tho intention of the firm to stick on a huge blob of inflammable material and send the lucifer to a giant in Patagonia. Tho_ great line was destined to be cut up into the ordinary lengths so familiar to the public. The starting point of the rommon match is a re?l of , white cotton strands, which would reach from Wellington to Palmerston if stretched .put, for the skein is ninety miles long. The fibre is fed through a bath of paraffin, and away it goes on to a largo reel, ready for the cutting machines. Rapidly the long body is divided up into sactions, and the pieces pass into frames each able to accommodate 4000. Outside a man has two iron tables, one vvith a layer of blue paste and the other red. This is the phosphorus composition, and the frames are pressed upon it for a moment. Then they are inverted, and the smear on each end of the wax foims into a little globnls around the butt. The match needs only drying to be complete. GxVLVANIC ATMOSPHERE. Xext a receptacle is needed for the finished product. In one »room there are little bales of stiff yellowish paper known as straw-board. This is rolled into tubes a foot long by a machine, and a- plaid wrapper is gummed on by hand. Then | the cylinder is cut into short lengths, which form the oiunide of the HUb round boxes which everybody has seen. Similar operations yield tho insider, which ara put in by hand. A machine cuts out the bottoms from squares of sanded paper, and these as well as the' tops are fixed upon the ca?€s by an automatic stamper. Away go the boxes in hundreds to the v a( &ing-rooia, ' where niinblo. feminine lingers fill them with matches from the lrames that have returned from the yard. This is an apartment full or life and the smoke of battle. "Everything incites to specd — the aniff of burnt phosphorus, the incessant crackle of i match-heads on the floor. -The machine • for ever sending out its line of match i body is always urging the workers to > hurry, cut it up, and pack it away. It is a galvanic atmosphere which would dispel tiredness from the most languid of tramps- The sparkle of it fires the girls, j and their tongues move as quickly as ' their hands, it is short, sharp talk, to the accompaniment of countless little ex- I plosions. Sometimes there is a mild*" flare up. Yesterday a match in one of tho frames which a girl was unpacking waa accidentally flicked, and away went nearly all tho 4000 in a flash. About three tons of phosphorus aTe used in twelve months. There is, of ! course, only a small percentage of this valuable substance in a match-head. Phosphorus and chlorate of potash ghe the ignition, and they are welded to- ) j gether with g'.ue. There are also other | j ingredients, such ■as chalk, \ powdered glass, and colouiing matter. There ia not the slightest difference, except in ' colour, between the red-headed match and the blue, but for years now people have asked for one kind ir. preference to ' the other, and they have their desires fulfilled. In thirteen years the employees at the factory Lave -risen from something under 20 to about 150, and the expansion has ' not yet reached >ls limit. The output is now about a million matches per day. THE CIGARETTE. Ifc 13 not a far cry froni the match to the cigarette, but there is a vast difference between the. plight of these two local industries. A little while ago machines were shredding leaves from faT and fair Virginia and Husky Turkey, and many gills were ranged by' long tables, filling dainty little cases, plain and goldtipped, with tobacco. The output was 250,000 cigarettes a week, but the demand did not keep pace with the supply, a fact which puzzled <he manufacturers, for they had a standing invitation to any one to go and &cc the tobacco pass from the leaf into its final resting-pluce. Eventually the oiders took away only 100,u00 a week, and at this rate a suiplus of 3,000,000 was accumulated. It was decided to cease operations till this supply was sold out, and then re-start on a sihaller scale. Stock worth about JG4700 is now lying idle, but everything, including raw "material, is in readiness for another attack upon the market. The average number of girls employed was 48, and tho toLtl went an high as 58. They received 3s a thousand lor making the* plnin variety, and 3s 6d for the gold-tipped. Some of the operators could account for 17,000 a week, and the earnings of one «gile manipulator reached £3 Bs. The smartest girl regularly secured £3, and tlnce averaged £2 10s each. In addition, eight men were engaged, nnd altogether the wages Irill absorbed £80 a week. Apparently the stifling of a promising industry t was duo to a very old cause, the uneknt superstition that foreign goods aie necessarily Duperioi to the homc-mude article.