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Evening Star, Issue 14511, 1 November 1910, Page 4

When the Prime Minister was at Roxburgh a fortnight ago it A Much-needed was represented to him Want. by the Borough Council

that one of the meet pressing needs of the district was the establishment of direct telephonic communication between the township and Dunedin, especially during tho fruit season. In reply Sir Joseph said : If the people of Roxburgh were prepared to give tho requisite number of subscribers for an exchange he would bo only too glad to give it. Twenty subscribers were necessary. Through communication with Dunedin was a difficult matter, and would cost £9,500 or £3,000 for a complete line. Government could not put any class in a different position to another in the matter of charges. Everyone must pay the same rates. An attempt to make a discrimination would bo indefensible, and would lead to a charge of favoritism. The rate upon the whole was a low one. A trunk line must have a copper wire, and was therefore expensive. ‘ Tho only condition he required was that there was sufficient business to pay depreciation and interest upon cost. To be switched on to a' telegraph wire would be of little use to them- Government must give them an expensive system to grant them ryhat they wanted.

The grievance of the Roxburgh people is a substantial one. The mail from Dunedin does not reach there till after seven o’clock at night, and the local telegraph office closes at five o’clock, so that letters dealing with fruit supplies cannot be answered till nine o’clock next morning. It would be an immense boon to the fruit-growers if during the season the local telegraph office were kept open from 7 to fi. As to the establishment of direct telephonic communication between Roxburgh and Dunedin, a copper wire must be laid either the whole distance of IQO miles or it might be laid from Milton, which is sixty-four miles. In .the latter case, of course, all messages would have to go through the Milton office. An £3Q per mile would cover every contingency, the cost of such a wire would be about £3,000 from Dunedin direct, and $1,929 from Milton- There would not be any difficulty in obtaining twenty subscribers to an exchange at Boibuvgh, if through communication with Dunedin weye assured, pud we h a ve their authority for saying that they never dreamed p{ asking for exceptional treatment. They are quite willing to be assessed at a pto that shall guarantee, the Department

against loss on |he ametrqctifln of a 4iwot w* (if abkwaWfi)i bufe wiJl'te i»&(M if f))e Department should choose a connection Tjvitfy Ujjtofi. Of} the t|}at Jialf a Jqaf is better than no brew, they will he pfily too glad to have sorgo meanp of 99mppvnication with Dunedin, h®iPß PftWPP®*! that it ia only a question of time when the expansion of the fruit hnsiffps® will pecespitate a through wire to Dunedin. In the meantime the member for the district (Mr I|. Scott) may be depended on to jog.the Postmaster-General's memory till ope or other of his constituents’ requests is complied with. It would certainly be helpful ff the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce were to back Mr Scott up.

Tub Bill amending the present Industrial Conciliation and ArhitraArbltraflgn tiop 4$ is on the right end fines. The main portion Conciliation, of the measure is taken

Up with machinery clauses providing for changing of name of a registered union without cancellation of any award or agreement applying to the union, and for several other matters of a similar nature. Cut the chief feature of the Bilj is the proposal that cases for breaches of awards shall be taken in the Arbitration Court instead of in thp Magistrates’ Courts. This is a proposal that should be welcomed by everyone, for it is certainly in the right direction. The Arbitration Court make the "awards, the Arbitration Court finally interpret them; and it should be the Arbitration Court that should have the duty of enforcing them. The Bill provides “ that penalties for the breach of an award “or an industrial agreement shall be recoverable by action in the Court of Arbitration, an! not otherwise"; the penalties so recovered to be paid into the Public Account. Provision ia also made for the attachment of for tho payment of penalties, the order of attachment being on the surplus over £2 per week in tho case of a worker who is married or who is a widow or widower with children, and on the surplus over £1 per week in other cases. So long as a worker is in employment it is therefore clear that the fines imposed can ho recovered; but it is to be noted that no proceedings under the Imprisonment for Debt Limitation Act are to be taken for failure to pay a penalty. Some provisions are included dealing with the vexed question of preference of employment, and designed for the more effectual carrying out of preference where it is awarded.

The summons has been issued calling on Cr Shaddock to show cause why he should not be ousted from his office as a councillor, but the date of the hearing has not yet been fixed by the magistrate (Mr Widdowson). The ground of the summons is that ho consigned and supplied certain goods—three ranges and a chuck—of the total value of £25 14s to the Council, contrary to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act. It is understood that similar proceedings will be taken in the case of another councillor if it can be shown that he acted in a like manner, and we hear that it is not unlikely that still another councillor, who is a director of a company which is alleged to have supplied good to the Council valued at over i-o, will also be asked to show cause why his seat should not be declared vacant.

At the recent Wellington Conference of the Employers’ Federation there were delegates from every affiliated Association in the Dominion. It was by far the largest conference of the kind every held in New Zealand. Sheep-owners, flax-millers, proprietors of coal mines were represented, and efforts are now being made to get the farmers’ unions to come into line. Now that the farm laborers and shearers have become well organised and are making demands in the Arbitration Court in respect to hours and wages for all ranks of farm laborers and all classes of workers connected with the sheep industry, it has become apparent that the farmers’ union will now require to stand in with the Federation, so that questions as they arise may be dealt with by the employers as a body representing the whole Dominion. That is the point of view which is being put with some force to the farmers.

Tho erection of salt-water swimming baths at a cost not to exceed £2OO was decided on yesterday evening by the Port Chalmers Council When the proposal was mooted a fortnight ago it was subjected to a deal of antagonistic criticism, on the ground that such a scheme was not at present feasible on account of the unfavorable state of the borough’s finances. The most of that opposition was dissipated last night when Cr Cable announced that he no longer opposed the erection of the baths on the score of cost, as he had heard a few days previously in Dunedin that the Harbor Board intended to relieve Port Chalmers Borough, at the end of the year, from all further payments under the new dock guarantee. This was in accordance with the understanding arrived at between members of the Board and Cr Tait when these gentlemen were in Wellington at the time the Merger Bill was in committee. This good news, concluded Cr Cable, had removed his only objection—oho of ways and means —to providing the residents with swimming baths. Two votes only were recorded against the motion to construct baths, and their erection was accordingly authorised. Tho destruction of bush on tho City reserves by fire has caused a good deal of anxiety of late, and the police have had special instructions to keep a vigilant watch on those who wilfully start fires in these reserves. On the oth of last month, while Constable Hood was in plain clothes, ho discovered a fire in a reserve near the Caveraham railway station, and after half an hour’s work he managed to extinguish it. He found three boys in the vicinity of the reserve at the time, and one of them admitted that ha had thrown a lighted match into some scrub, thus causing the fire. Tho lad was brought before the Juvenile Court this morning and charged with the offence. Ho was given a good character, and the magistrate admonished and discharged him, ordering the father to pay the damage dope (20s), Nothing is yet formally settled about the day on which Christmas (which falls on a Sunday) shall be observed this year, but an inquiry on the subject leads us to suppose that, following the custom in Otago, the Monday will be tho Christmas Day and Tuesday tho Boxing Day. No trouble is apprehended about agreeing to such an arrangement. Mr H. Y. Widdowson, 8.M., bad o short sitting in tho Police Court this morning. A first offender was fined 10s for drunkenness, in default twenty-four hours’ imprisonment. William Galbraith, charged with driving three cows through the Borough of Roelyn between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p ; m., was fined fis arid costs-

With the beginning of this month opened the ■tourist season, _ Already oversea visitors ere making inquiries in regard to the Lakes and overland trip Id Milford Sound- A busy season is anticipated. Detectives Hunt and Mitchell leave for Christchurch to augment the detective force there during the Carnival Week. Mr Terry, the contractor for the underground conveniences in Custom-house square, will finish his work there to-mor-row. It is not expected that the ope for both sexes in the Octagon will be finished for a month yet. Mr Terry straightway makes a start with the conveniences to be constructed in London street.

At the Port Chalmers Council last night Cr Lunn gave notice of motion that a committee be appointed to act in conjunction with a committee from the Mechanics’ Institute to consider the advisability of asking Mr Andrew Carnegie for' a free public library for Port Chalmers. ' '

The Boqrd have appointed a sub-committee to obtain the necessary furniture and furnishings for the Port Chair jpa»S. GqHfigo ff-vipiat-

’■ ” it* f 7 * 77 ■*< - - ; Olio p| the chief subjects of discussion' §6 ftp PfflfJßSgg .$8 Federation was the amending Arbitration Act* now - before Parliament. Some persons Hjiflk tfiai' the \yi|l not go on w}th that Bill during the present sjsssion, becaus®. Sir G. Ward did not it in bis list of measures to be pushed through. Possibly, however, that •was an oversight. In any case, the Federation 4oemed it wise tq esprit their opinions about the Bill. They, protest very strpngly agaust the provision by which it is made an offence to employ for morn thfjJi fpprteen days after notice any perpon wi?o is not a-Member of a union. This ig going a great <W further than any previous preference clause. “It is compulsory preference," remarked one of the employers, M and practically means that evpiy worker in the Dominion must join a union or leave the country." Opposition w«« also shown to another part of tho Bill which provides that any person entering into a contract for labor only is to be deemed a worker under the Act, and if unable under his contract to average tho daily .wage according to tho award the employer has to make it VP to him. The Federation urge that tips would destroy the whole system of contract so far as labor is concerned, and if allowed would naturally be applied to piece work as well, thus meaning the dosinig''down of all the large coal mines and several of the large gold mines as well—the Waihi amongst them—since nearly the whole of the work in these mines ia done by co-operative contract.

“Qur Own” telegraphs from Invercargill:—No further intelligence is to hand re the escaped prisoners, and no sign of them has been seen since Friday night, when the police lost sight of them in Cruickshanks Bush. The town is full of rumors and theories, and it is thought that the fugitives must have reached Hedgehopo Bush or have got clear of Southland by biding in railway trucks bound for some out-of-the-way country centre. The police are still on the alert, hut in the absence of any clue do not know where to search. They think that if they give the escapees sufficient rope they will bo sure to hang themselves, figuratively speaking. Mr William Short, the adjudicator at the band contest at Ballarat, said the playing he had heard was remarkable. One band —Prahran City—was happy in the possession of a wonderful solo cornet (Mr Percy Code), and the solo work of the band could only be described by the word “ beautiful.” He desired to congratulate that band upon its fine solo "playing—the best of the day. There were four or so bands —Wanganui, Prahran City, Collingwood, and City of Ballarat—at the contests that were able to claim a position among the best bands of the Old Country. Any one of them was up to the English standard. As for the Wanganui Band, the winners of the big event, its playing of the selection ‘Valkyrie’ was marvellousj the Besses o’ th’ Bam never played it better. Fruit and produce merchants had a conference this afternoon with Mr T. W. Kirk, Government Biologist, on several matters affecting the fruit trade.

Tho Bill now before Parliament for amending the Arbitration Act seems to bo disliked, so far as some of its features go, by both employers and employed. The masters say that it is a men’s Bill, the men declare that it is a masters’ Bill. Yet there, are some points about the now proposals 'that both sides appear to be agreed about. One of these is the clause under which all breaches of awards are to be taken from tho Magistrate’s and placed again before the Arbitration Court. The diversity of the magistrates’ decisions has caused confusion and annoyance, and a return to the higher tribunal would bo commonly welcomed. Tho Employers’ Federation do not approve of the new proposal that the Arbitration Court shall sit every three months in each of the four centres. The Federation say that it might sometimes be unnecessary to hold such a sitting, and that tho Court should fix the sittings according to convenience and necessity. The Special Committee of the Hospital Board recommend in reference to the instructions of tho Board of tho 6th October —“ That the scope and power of the Works Committee be redefined, and such defining be referred to a special committee, consisting of the chairmen of tho various committees ” —that the scope and power of such Works Committee remain as at present.

The Tramways Committee of the City Council will consider at their next meeting the advisability of recommending the Council to instal the May-Oat way automatic fire alarm. at the car sheds.

The necessary permission having been given this morning, the duplicated portion of the Anderson Bay tram track was used this afternoon for the carriage of passengers.

Bedsteads of British manufacture still lead the world: See stock at Sanders’s, furnisher, 175 George street.—[Advt.j Received on behalf of the Kaikorai Band fund : “ Quickstep,” 20s.

Thomas Fogg, dental surgeon, has removed to his new premises at the corner of George and Park streets.—[Advt.] The sale of work promoted by the various ladies’ societies connected with Knox Church will be opened on Thursday afternoon in the Knox Church Sunday School Hall. A large variety of useful and ornamental articles will be on sale, proceeds of which will bo devoted to the Punjab ‘hospital fund. A small charge will bo made for admission in the evening, when a musical programme will be presented.

Speight’s alb and stout are acknowledged by the Dominion public to bo tho best on the market.—[Advt.] Hanoo, the Handcuff King, will dive from tho upper bridge of the t.s.s. Waikana (off tho Portobello wharf), handcuffed, leg-ironed, and chained, on Wednesday afternoon. See the Waikana’s time-table in this issue.— [Advt.] Eighteen miles by water for one shining. Bee Waikana’s time-table to-day.—TAdvt.] A meeting of the Laborers’ Union will bo held to-morrow evening at the Trades Hall.

Our aim in portrait photography is to keep ahead. Wo do keep ahead, and we intend to keep ahead all the time. The Acme Photo Company have moderate charges only. Telephone 965. —[Advt.] Messrs Park, Reynolds, Limited, announce the sale by auction of a quarter-acre in Forth place, abutting on the Town Belt. In consequence of a printer’s error last night we are asked to say that the sale will be held on Monday, November 14. The correct announcement appears in this issue.

The very latest and most up-to-dato photo picture is the “artist’s proof portrait,” by Morris photo, Princes si reel. Call and see specimens. Telephone 859.—[Advt.] Two appropriations will be balloted for by the Otago Mutual Starr-Bowkett on Thursday evening.

Ladies know them to have no equal. Martin’s Apiol and Steel Pills, sold by all chemists and stores throughout Australasia.— [Advt.]