Page 8 Advertisements Column 2

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 5 March 1912, Page 8

"One of the most puzzling and interesting facts, in connection with tho blackest days of the strike siege in Brisbane was that, although ordinary people were living on preserved meats, condensed milk, scones, and mouldy breau, people who had access to the beet hotels could enjoy, for a price, prime poultry, the best cuts of beef, prime butter, fresti bread, pure milk, and even ice-cream," writes special reporter to a Sydney journal. "The hotel proprietors were by no means ready to supply the key to the mystery, fearing, no doubt, betrayal and Teprisais. In travelling through from Brisbane, however, one learned at Ipswich, a smaller city connected by water with the capital, that on" the Saturday after Black Friday a capacious barge was towed up to the town wharve*>, and enterprising providores invaded the place, buying out the entire contents of several" butchers and bakers' shop-s ?Iso what ice, milk and fresh vegetables were available. With this valuable cargo the barge drifted silently back on the tide to Brisbane, and a fresh menu appeared miraculously at the big houses on Sunday, when every avenue ot supply was supposed to have been closed by the strike committee."

Under the Commonwealth Defence Act a large number of area officers is required, and an allowance of £l5O per an num is attached to the position. "For "pickings" of this sort certain members of Parliament have a keen scent, and thev are out in the field in strong forcv after these positions. But the post oi area officer is not a sinecure, and work—some of it may prove to bo unpleasant work—must be done wjthout fear, and without any suspicion of favour. It is, in fact, work for tho performance of which a member of Parliament, who must liv© on terms of amity with his constituents or lose their votea, is most conspicuously unfitted. Above all discipline must be- maintained, so in this case members of Parliament are to be shut out. Thev have been so pereistent in their clamouring for these posts (says the Melbourne "Age ) that the Executive Council has felt constrained to pass a regulation specifically declaring that no member of an Australian Parliament shall be eligible to hold an appointment as an area officer.

' Mr Veitch, M-P-, made a few pertinent remarks at the conference of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, held at Wellington, says the "Post," about the inutility of strikes. He pointed out that it cost the A.S.R.S. £ISOO to get what was generally recognised as bare justice for a few of thenmen who had been involved in the big strike which took place in 1890. Bearing that in mind, he asked what it would cost to secure the superannuation benn fits to which they were now entitled if all went out on strike? He pointed out that a very big strike, and a well-or-ganised strike, had ended disastrously n Australia. While agreeing with Professor Mills's proposals for unity, in which provision is made for a strike under certain circumstances, Mr. Veitch did not think that railway men could conscientiously throw their weight into a movement* which might involve them in a strike, because they must always consider the benefits derivable from the superannuation fund, which a strike would deprive them of. He ursred the'h i<> join and stick to their organisation, and to so constitute and conduct it that a strike could not be forced upon them.

PERSEVERANCE WILL CARRY YOU THROUGH. Edison himself had to'^oik hard '.o attain success. Every young inventor must persevere if he would make his patent profitable. Perusal of our free Booklet "Advice to Inventors" will be heijmn. Write for a copy. HENRY HUGHES. Ltd.. 157 Featherston-street. Wellington.