GENERAL NEWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

o An amended award has been gazetted to cover the employees in the hairdressing saloon and barbers' shops in and around Sydney. Amongst other things, it is provided in the award that the hours of work aro not to exceed 51) m any one week. Wages are fixed as follcws :— Ordinary journeymen, £2 8s per week; journeymen doing hair work and gentlemen's hairdressing aro to have £2 13s per week, and those doing this work and ladies' hairdre&sing besides are to geu £2 18s. Casual Saturday workers are awarded 14s lor a full clay (8 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and 7s 6d for a half day (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.). Broken time is to be paid for at 2s for the first hour or part thereof, and Is 3d for each subsequent hour or part thereof. Stonemasons in Melbourne have had their working conditions re-regulated by a Wages Board appointed to deal with, the matter. The new determination provides for a_ 44 hours week, as against 45 hours previously obtaining in the trade. All round increases in wages have been secured. Monumental carvers are at the top of a lengthy classification list. They aro to be paid is 7d an hour, or £3 10s a week. Other workmen have been raised Id. an hour, including labourers, whose rate of pay is no"w ll^d. band boys under 16 years of age have been raised from 7s 6d to 10s per week ; over 16 and under 17 years, from 10s to lbs ; over 17 and under 18 years, from 15s to 20s; over 18 and under 19 years, from 20s to 255 ; over 19 and under 20 years, from 25s to 355. Ac a means of preserving the' language^, legends, religions, traditions, and lore of the Xorth American Indians, the department of anthropology of the university of California has engaged the sa-vices of Achora Hungara, a Mojave j Indian, and Captain Jack Jones, one of 1 the interpreters of the tribe. The two Indians will hold positions in the faculty of the university. Hungara^ is known throughout the Bouth-west as one of the wisest of the medicine men. His knowledge of the history of his race is I said to be vast. Hie lectures are to ba placed on graphaphone records and kept for future study. A newspaper war is convulsing Oklahoma City (U.S.), if reports be true, and its citizens are fairly buried under an 1 avalanche of 'papers. Six daily newspapers are published, all of them iaeumg from three to five editions daily. Three of the newspapers are free. The waa- among the newspaper publishers has demonstrated that a free newspaper is anything but a blessing to the city. Soon after 4- o'clock in the^ afternoon, when the free newspapers are out and .have been liberally distributed, the streets and sidewalks are littered with crumpled newspapers, which the Oklahoma wind blows in. every direction. Thousands of copies of the free papersare thrown away after they have been glanced at once by those to whom they have been handed. Their standing is about the same as that of ahandbill distributed gratuitously on the street. Springfield Eepublican, Mass., U.S., says : — Commander Sims was one of President Roosevelt's naval "pets." He was much in evidence at the White House during the last administration, and he was exceedingly aggressive in urging reforms in, naval administration and in the construction of warships. His hand was deep in the navy mud- | raking of a few years ago. Older aria | higher-ranking officers did not enjoy having Commander Sims placed in command of a battleship, and they will not be convulsed with sorrow when the department reprimands him, as it must, I foe his indiscreet remark at the Guildhall in London about America rushing tc uhe defence of tho British Empire, m case it should be attacked, with "every man, every dollar, every ship, and every drop of blood," Some interesting statistics were given in The Times recently to show the gradi ual decrease in the frequency of London fogs. The figures are based ixpon tiie last twenty-seven winters. The results are best seen if this period is divided into three groups of nine winI ters each. The average number of days | with fog in each winter of the first group (1883-84 to 1891-92) was 29.9; in the second group (1892-93 to 1900-1) it was 20.7; and in th* third (19ul-2) to l 1909-10) it was only 10.6. There is also a corresponding increase in the hours of bright sunshine recorded, the average number of hours per -winter in the same three periods being 55.6, 70.1 and 93.5 respectively. Various causes 'have been suggested to explain this great improvement in the London atmosphere, but the principal one has certainly been the reduction of the smoke nuisance, due both to the action of public' authorities and to the use of improved methods of lighting and heating.

. WAI-RONGOA. _ Wai-Rongoa, natural mineral water, is now obtainable in leading hotels and clubs throughout the North Island. Tho demand is increasing at a great rate, and there is now little danger of not being able to get it, as there is now a %wde range of up-to-date houses to select from, Those who know "Wai-Rongoa" won t huvo any other mineral water.— Advt,