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Mataura Ensign, 24 August 1910, Page 4

The Collector of Customs at Auckland, Mr J. P. Ridings, has made a somewhat unusual seizure, and he is now trying to sell 32 cases of marble monuments, representing 12 tombstones, confiscated by the Department. From our advertising columns it will be seen that the New Zealand Express Company has reduced the price of lignite to 8s 6d per load of 27cwt. The lignite is procured from the well-known Green's pit, and is delivered into the coalshed in any part of the town. Fifteen patients are now under treatment at tiie new sanatorium for consumptives at Pleasant Valley (Palmer■;ton South). At present there is accommodation for ,10, and applications for •ulmissinn, which are already being received from different quarters, including tlie North Island, warrant extensions.

The second term holiday of the Gor» High School will commence on Friday next. The school will reassemble on luesday morning, September 13.

The Chief Inspector (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph') apparently places littlo value on the magical letters "8.A." once thoy are placed on a tombstone, and ho suggests that frequently graduation means a short cut to the cemetery. He was inclined to use Professor Nicol's words, that teachers sometimes mistook aspiration for inspiration. He would be sorry to damp the enthusiasm or ambition of any young teacher, but in view of the numbers breaking down a warning was timely. What was the future worth to the graduate broken down in health, suffering from nervous prostration? He had succumbed himself, in his student days,- and over 30 years' experience as an insj>ector had proved that the possession of a degree was small compensation for a life of miserable ill-health. There were numbers of teachers who battled through by sheer forco of will when their bodies were not strong enough to keep company. A degree was a good thing, although he had met teachers of equal culture who were not entitled to taek | on university letters. As far as the school work was concerned, cases were now before him which he attributed directly to the break down of teachers who were burning the candle at both ends to such an extent that one nearly went out. He detested seeing men ;nd women sacrificing themselves" and their future for the attainment of an ideal they were physically incapable of r< aching. Unless a teacher was assui-d thsit he would come through the nrdeil w.th his physical vigor unimpaired ho had .10 right to begin.

"Outside the difficulties that the employer has to contend against by the harassing Labour legislation forced upon him by a paternal Government," said Mr D. Goldie in the course of his presidential speech at the annual meeting of the Auckland Labour Employers' Federation, "there is the further difficulty created by his employees, who, in many instances through the Dominion, are showing a growing tendency to restrict the output. It is a wellknown fact that many employees rarely give a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. Whenever men possessed of grit and determination made an effort to push their work ahead, they were immediately told by certain of their co-workers to go easy, otherwise is would be unpleasant for them. Outside of those, who can but will not give a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, is another class of worker, who cannot earn the minimum wage from want of ability, lack of energy, or because old age and decrepitude have come upon them. The labour laws press very cruelly upon such. Hundreds of them are forced out of employment, and into poverty because one main plank in the Labor platform is preference to unionists. Unions having awards carrying this clause, it is said and justly so too, become Labour trusts. A first class artisan can on account of his ability command employment anywhere, and yet he is compelled to join the union or be debarred from working side by side with an incompetent worker, who draws the same wage as himself. It has been suggested that a clause might very well be added to our Arbitration Act that would provide for the compulsory grading of workers, who might be divided into three classes: Firstclass (thoroughly competent); secondclass (not thoroughly competent); and third-class (decrepit workers)."

Heifer strayed. Steam hammer wanted. Lignite for 8s 6d per 27cwt from the N.Z. Express Co. Citizens' Tennis Clubs' entertainment to-morrow night. The National Mortgage and Agency Co. have milking machine and oil engine for sale. Card match in Paterson's tea rooms on Thursday night. See chapter 111. about Walders' cycle business.

National Mortgage and Agency Co. hold annual spring sale of horses on August 81.