DUNEDIN NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIII, Issue 13783, 23 June 1905, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[FROM OlJll COEBESrONDENT.] DUNEDIN, June 22.

As a counter-move to the deputation which waited on Sir Joseph Ward on Monday asking that Mr Riddell, S.M. (who temporarily : acted while Mr McCarthy was adjudicating at Auckland), should not bo removed from Invercargill, a number ol townspeople are petitioning the Minister of Justice to retain Mr M’Cavthy. It is an open secret that Mr Riddell was the Magistrate censured by the Premier lor indiscreet remarks at the official luncheon when the Mayor of Invercargill was installed. .'With' tins view of preventing the buzz of extraneous noises in the receiving instrument in connection with the city telephone service, an alteration in return currents is being - effected. The trouble has been • intensified since the electric car system was installed, and sometimes the sound of a speaker’s voice through the telephone is lost in the accompanying noise of tram traffic. Formerly the electric current passed from the batteries in the Exchange to the listener’s instrument and back through the earth to the Exchange again. When the new styles come into vogue the earth will no longer be relied on for transmission of the return current, as each instrument will havo two wires, one from the Exchange and one to it. These pairs of wires are to be enclosed : in lead pipes, and one pipe containing 102 pairs of wires is now being put into position in the neighbourhood of the Octagon. This will bo gradually extended along George Street, Princes Street and other main thoroughfares. The latest thing which mechanical science has done for tne bottling industry is now on view in this city. Tho appliance in question is a bottle-wash-ing machine. Formerly the washing of bottles was don© by hand, but with tho now appliance, whereby two men can do the work of six, thirty-two bottles are treated at once. The tourh of a handle injects a certain quantity of water and steel chips into the bottles, and they are then propelled backwards and forwards at great speed, the motion of the steel chips and water effecting the cleaning. The bottles are then returned to an upright position, tho steel chips passing back automatically to the magazines. A rinsing apparatus then injects a stream of water,into the.bottles, and at the end of the process not only are the bottles beautifully clean, but oho rate of treatment itself is anything but slow. The machine keeps two men going as fast as they can handle the bottles, and yesterday one man treated eighty-four dozen in six and threequarter hours. The machine in question is said to b© the first of its kind that has been imported into the South Island and possibly into the colony.