LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13674, 15 February 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

ROM OUR "OWN CORRESPONDENT.} ! London, January 3. The New Year, 1908, finds the, British Islands! ironbound in black frost' and swept by .persistent cast winds, which prevent the formation of ice sufficiently thick and unbroken to be safe or practicable for skating upon. Such vivid hopes of benefit have been excited in the minds of the shareholders in tho Great Northern and Great Central i Railway Companies- as likely to accrue from the pending "pool" of those two companies—virtually their amalgamation that several other schemes of a similar kind are "in the air." A pooling of the Scottish railways has been, I hear, {.Tactically decided upon, and now another, of the South-eastern and Chatham on tho one liand, and the Loudon, Brignton, ;>nd South Coast on the other, is rumoured to be in contemplation. London is .threatened with 8 mot<>-.-bus strike, "indeed, 2000 motorbuomen are actually "out" to-day. All, however, belong to a single company, the London Road Car Co., and their ground of complaint is that their directors want to {.ay them by work done, as is the case in all the other London -omnibus companies, and not by the week as at present, and as the men desire. The London Road Car directors contend that they do not get so much work out of their vehicles as do the other companies, and they attribute this',to the difference in the system of payment. When payment is by the week, the directors urge, there ie no inducement for their men to hurry up," and in case of mishap, to "get going" again with all feasible celerity, whereas when payment is by results it is the direct interest of the men to' reduce -delays to a minimum. ' One may say with truth of many British workmen that " for ways that are dark ; and tricks that are' vain," he, like the "Heathen Chinee," is peculiar. A case has . just come under my personal notice. A certain syndicate took new offices. The I fittings included the placing of a, number' of names and letterings on various parts of the premises. The contract was taken ' by an eminent firm, and most 'distinct and elaborate directions, all either printed | or typewritten, were given. Yet with those plain directions in their hands and right""• before their eyes, the 'workmen actually had to do the work three tunes over . owing to the sheerest carelessness. They.altered the prescribed order of the names, mis-spelled words, and apparently laid themselves out to make every mistake .that keen ingenuity could devise.-* In one case a word of five letters wasjsubstituted for another of three, with which j it had only a single letter in common! , JAso, a simple letter-box had to bo entirely reconstructed several times because! the typed instructions had been carelessly ignored, and an article supplied that was consequently useless. All these things, j as I have said, came under my own per- , eoual notice during the past few days, so tha£ I am. stating no imaginary "case." Is it wonderful that England is so often beaten by,other nations when Biuch things can happen? They do not happen abroad or when foreign contractors are engaged. ' ■■ / • ' : ■-' / ... > '. Quite the latest burglar alarm— is the v burgling season" you know—is a big gramophone which is set going by- the opening of any window or door, after the house has, been locked up for the night, and the inmates have "retired to rest"— otherwise gone to bed. Directly that happens a deep and terrible voice is heard to say ferociously, "Get out of this or I'll fill you with lead," and then conies a click like the cocking of a revolver.