LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 18144, 7 December 1922, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A Christmas tea, entortalimwnt under the auspices of the Younger Maia Department of tho Y.M.O.A. attracted an attendance of about 100 young men last evening. Tho Hon, G. M. Thomson presided, Mr J. B. Waters (president) conveyed season’s greetings froni tho Boarc of Directors, and tho Kov. Tulloch YuiUo delivered an address on ‘ Tho Spirit or Christmas.’ Tho tea was servedj by a number of men'-costumed os hngusn butlers, with, the regulation muttonchop” whisketra. Tho menu included plum pudding, bon-bons, and tho dietary familiar to every Christmas tamo, tho hall was attractively decorated with colored streamers and holly entwined among lattice work. Mr Robin Adair (t e secretary) stated that several members would be transferred to'the senior division, and in doing so urged them to perpetuate the spirit that had consolidated the department they wore leaving. Un behalf of the clubs, Mr L. Gam extended hearty good washes to the members and to-Mr Adair. Dining the evening songs were contributed by Miss Mollv Tickers and Mr Mitchell, while several instrumental selections were given by Messrs Roi Don, R. Hunter, and D. Nelson.

A boy named Major Bancroft was injured in a margarine factory at Auckland, with tho result that after his admission to the hospital his left arm had to bo amputated from the el tow. Ho is reported to have performed a very pbicKy action at the time of the accident. After being extricated from tho machine by the foreman, who immediately went for help, the boy, holding his badly-crashed arm with the other, went through the factoiy and stopped all the machinery, thus saying a great deal of damage wlncn would bav© occurred had tho machinery been left to run on unattended.

A matter frequently dismissed by the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce ij the proposal to change tho name ot the town to Manawatu. At the annual meeting of the chamber (states the ‘ Times ’) a member told how he sent a cable from a city in England t<> Palmerston North. He _ waited in vain for a reply, and on making investigations found that the message had been sent to a Palmerston in Canada!

A young man named George Coxon was drowned at Wnananaki Beach, lYhangarei recently. At the inquest the evidence showed that Goxon was one of a picnic party bathing at the tune of the accident with a girl aged seventeen, named Lily Jones. The kttor got into difficulties and cried for help. Coxon was not a good swimmer, but nevertheless promptly dashed to her 'rescue, but wav unable to battle against the undor-tow. John Hamilton plunged in and succeeded in bringing the girl ashore in a state of exhaustion. Meanwhile Coxon had disappeared.

Hundreds of seaside cottages from Rangitikci Heads to Plimmerton are already fully occupied for the holiday season (says the Manawalu ‘ Times ’). In every place the drift, by blocking the outlet of springs and small streams, has formed a swampy area near the sandhills on the sea lino. * These are infested with mosquitos to such an extent that the pleasure of the seaside is seriously interfered with. Every known remedy, from boiling small pots'of tar inside to spraying with oil of citron, has been tried. There is only one way, and that is eradication by spraying the breeding places with kerosene. *lt is a Government job, which might cost £SOO, and therefore is not done.

It seems likely that one section of workers in Christchurch, the carpenters and joiners, are not likely to be detrimentally affected by the 3s “cut” ordered by the Court of Arbitration (remarks the ‘ Lyttel,ton Times’). Mr E. C. Sutcliffe, organising secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners,, informed a reporter that the demand for carpenters and joiners in Christchurch is such that a I number could find employment right away at from 2s 4d to 2s od an hour, or from 19s to 20s a day. The award rate plus bonus is 2s 2£d per hour; if the “cut” were made it would be 2s lid an hour. Under conditions at present ruling, thanks to the natural law of supply and demand, carpenters and joiners; instead of a “ cut ” of 3s a week, can earn wages equal to more than an addition of 7s a week on the award rate plus bonus. It is reported that the carpentry and joinery trades are in a similar condition in the other centres of the dominion. There are no unemployed carpenters and joiners reported from any of the centres. The present condition of things is attributed to tinlarge amount of commercial building going on at present in this and other centres. Mr Alfred J. Parker, analyst and consulting chemist, returned to New Zealand by the Tahiti last week, after a stay of about eighteen months, in America. Interviewed by a Wellington 1 Times ’ representative, Mr Parker said : “ 1 put in the eighteen months cruising about all over, the States from north to south, and from east to west, and spent quite a time looking into industrial matters there. The conditions, when I left, seemed to be pretty right for the workers. There was not much unemployment, but there seems to be a big agitation sizzling under the surface there, and I think they are going to have a lot of trouble with the trade unions. The unions there have not proportionately got anything like the strength they have here and* in Australia. It is very difficult for them to get the same strength on account of the great number of _different nationalities contained in the anions and in the factories and workshops, in many departments the employers are compejled to have foremen of the same nationality as the workers, as so many of them cannot speak English. In one department you will find practically nothing but Italians; in another place Poles; and so on. The factory notices have to bo put up in about seven languages in order to let the people know what they are to do. Then another reason why the unions can’t work so readilv as here seems to be the tendency on the part of the masters in America to try to do away with the unions, which is a thing they are not likely to do, of course.”

Stirring, stories of adventure or. islands to the north-west of Australia were related by men on tho sloop Geranium, which returned to Sydney recently after a six months’ cruise.* The men'declared that on landing at ono island they were greeted by a heavy shower of arrows from natives in ambush. After the friendly reception in other islands, such behaviour took them by surprise. As the party was equipped solely for surveying, and not for fighting, it was decided to return to the Geranium'in the laonph from which they had been conducting operations. Then, armed to the teeth, an expedition set out to bring the offending natives to task. More arrow's came their way when the beach was reached, and the Jack Tars, with a yell, charged toward their hidden opponents. Savages in hordes than appeared from behind the thick undergrowth and scampered in a body toward tho interior. Through dense jungles tho natives flew, with the bluejackets in pursuit. Tho offenders were never caught, however, for they knew every inch of their wild.territory. The Geranium men contented themselves with burning tho natives’ village. In that village was only one native—a woman. She had no fears for tho white Htrangers, who took her for a witch. She purveyed the heavens, wrung her hands, fend called down tho wrath of the gods.