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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 141, 29 May 1920, Page 4

A day or two back an extract from the "opening address of its president, Mr. M. A. Carr, to the annual meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce was n.ade the text of our main article. Another extract may well be quoted to-day. “In connection generally with the matter of payment for services,” he said, “I believe that the class in the community which is suffering most at the present time is the salaried class. I think all municipalities, public bodies, and' business houses, if they have not already done so, should take into serious consideration the conditions of employment and the remuneration of their salaried men. Many business houses have done so, but if any have not I commend this suggestion to their immediate consideration.” There can be no doubt as to the truth of Mr. Carr’s remarks. The man on a small salary—that is small in relation to the current cost of living—is-, indeed, badly placed, more especially where—as is probably the case, with tho greater number —he is a family man or in some other way has others dependent on him. Generally lacking anything in the shape of an organisation through which to . press their claims, men on small salaries have to stand’ by and see those more fortunately placed being almost invariably granted “demands” based on increased household outgoings, while their own needs arising from the same cause receive but scant recognition from their employers. There is something fundamentally wrong in this- There is probably no class of workers that is more zealous and loyal in its service, or which is so willing to sacrifice time and pleasure in order to promote employers’ interests. Yet, while the employer can always find some way of meeting “demands” that are compelled upon him, whether in the' form of increased wages or of higher prices of material, the plea of the abnormally heavy cost of running tho business is very often deemed a sufficient answer to anv suggestion for improvement in the lower grades of salary. The effect of combination is doubtless to be found in the recent de- I cision of one of our banks that an appreciable, but still not over-generous,

advance had been made in favour of the lower-placed members of its staff. But it should not be that any . such pressure is needed to secure a fair recognition that the exceptional conditions which now obtain almost universally. and which show but little prospect of an early return to those holding before the war, affect those receiving small salaries just as acutely as those on low wages.

The oyster, though popularly esteemed as a brain-food, is not itself a very promising looking subject, for education. Still, it seems that it is capab’e of learning quickly at least one very useful lesson that some members of the highest grade of evolutionary development find it difficult to acquire. It can, it appears, be taught in a few days to “keep its mouth shut.” Interesting experiments in oyster cultivation are being conducted in Helford Estuary, near Ealmouth, by Mr. Stanley Gardiner, Professor of Zoology at Cambridge. Typhoid cases having been occasionally traced to the eating of infected oysters, Professor Gardiner has directed special attention to the elimination of this danger to human consumers. According to his report, included in “Fisheries in the Great War,” recently published by the British Fishery Department, he states that in the Old Country typhoid infection from oyster-beds is “almost non-existent.” His conviction is that the chief danger of oysters becoming unfit for human food now arises in the journey from the fisherman to the consumer, from careless handling and dirty packing, especially if.they grow faint by the way and open their shells. In order to cure them of indulgence in this habit they are alternately dried off and replaced on the beds, and this plan, which sounds quite as tricky as that adopted on a famous occasion by the Walrus and the Carpenter, appears to produce the desired effect- Thus on quite lengthy journeys they keep their mouths as tightly closed as did those who, during the war. recognised in every casual travelling companion, in London ’bus or in railway carriage, a potential German spy. So long as the shells remain closed, the Professor declares, and do noKlose their shell water, the oysters are good for human consumption and cannot be infected. Mussels, too, it seems, are being taught hygiene in tanks, where, “through careful drilling,” they learn to purge themselves of the pollution of sewage by carrying out, during their immersion in sterilised sea-water, . the ordinary processes of nature. Risk of pollution of our shell-fish is, of course, not nearly so great here as in the Old Country. Still, these are “tips” worth whi’q noting by our own Fisheries Department, especially as “the oyster season” is now “on.”

London cables yesterday and to-day make reference to the almost simultaneous appearance there of Dlr. E. G. Theodore, Queensland’s Premier in an “advanced” Labour Government, and of a delegation from the sai!|e tSate headed by Sir Robert Philp, Leader of the Opposition. The primary object of the Premier’s mission is to raise money in order to relieve the Banana State’s finance, which, under Labour direction, has fallen into parlous condition. The delegation’s purpose is to expose what it considers unjust Labour legislation and suggest that some means should be devised to prevent repetition of the like. Among the objects of its protests recent legislation affecting rents of pastoral Crown lands takes a prominent place. Under the previous law reassessments of rents were made every five years, and rentals could not be raised by more than 50 per cent as compared with the preceding period. The object of this limitation was to afford security to lessees in making improvements. and to lenders of money on such properties. The Government, however, introduced a Bill removing this limitation, and also providing lor the reopening of assessments made during the last five years. It is contended that this is a distinct breach of contract. Men have been induced to invest money on a certain Government assurance, and this assurance has been broken. To help to understanding of Mr. Theodore’s statement cabled to-dsfy the circumstances under which this legislation reached the Statute-book may be mentioned. The Legislative Council threw out the Bill, and when the Government proposed that the Council should be abolished, the electors rejected the proposal in a referendum. The Government subsequently appointed one of their own party, Mr- Lennon—whose loyalty, by the way, has been impugned —Lieutenant-Governor, and added to the Upper House a* sufficient number of new members to, pass their legislation. It is to protest against the appointment of Mr Lennon and the provisions of the Act that Sir Robert Philp has gone to London. Mr. Theodore’s job is to convince London capitalists that, despite the confiscatory and repudiatory tendencies of its Government,-Queens-land is still a perfectly safe field for investment of their money. It will be interesting to see how he gets on.