LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14835, 11 November 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

1%W P '' ' BY MEEcnto^

jP" f 1 - ; K-KBtoNP. is wondering what answer the ' manager of the Tramways Company will ■; 1 iv 6 to the amazing demands of the Employees Union. Apart from the question ®of wages, about which I have nothing to ° v they strike mo as being deliberately > degressive and arrogant. Apparently everytidy in the company's employ except the manager and one or two others must join !lfi'e union or he dismissed from the service, fill' a conductor has more money than his jfeijact amount—which can only happen by his giving short change—the balance is to CP into his pocket. It a passenger leaves jnv property in a car and neglects to claim it "with in i given time it is to be handed over to the conductor. This,, surely,* is unionism run mad.

■V \n American gentleman by (lie name of • ling is running Sir John Findiav close as the champion flatterer. Ho writes to the Harbour BoaVd to say that the Auckland port is better equipped than the port of New York. There nowWe shall. 1 fear soon lose all sense of modesty if we 'go on being complimented in this fulsome fashion.

Should servants of-a public body be hanked by formal resolution for doing their duty '! The point is a very nice one, and seems to have somewhat perplexed the members of the Harbour Board. Personally 1 do not see any harm in the custom. It'mav be quite superfluous, but such superfluities add to the amenities of life, and cost nothing. A word of praise from Lord Chesterfield would have sweetened 'the lot of Dr. Johnson when he was a poor and struggling scholar, but it remained unspoken, and in his celebrated letter to that nobleman he wrote : —" I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little." When a servant does his dutv and does it exceptionally, well it is not*enough to say he was paid to do it. ;Whv should we grudge to accord him a vote of thanks ?

'*■ It is said that a good many electors in Grey Lynn are sorely puzzled over the paradoxical attitude of Sir Georgel mean. ihe Hon. George Fowlds. He left tho Ministry because his conscience would not allow him to continue a member of it any longer, and yet he is asking the electors to support it gild to show their confidence ia it by voting for him. This seems to stand in need of a little explanation.

When we hear so much about the cost of living it is. perhaps, just as well to remember that when our grandfathers first came to New Zealand everything was very much dearer than it is to-day. A cabbage, for instance, cost half-a-crown. How did they manage in those days They did very well, for they led the severely simple life. If .we had the courage to do the same the increased cost of living would soon cease ■to trouble us. So long as everybody wants the best cuts the price of meat is not likely to" *"nne down. •

T",lien »*ie reclamation scheme which the i: Harbour Board has just agreed to in conjunction with the Railway Department is completed Auckland will have one of the finest water frontages in New Zealand. Mr. Gunson, the chairman of the Board, and 'indeed all concerned, deserve our congratulations. Bv-and-bve, what the Herald has so long advocated will be a fait - accompli, and we shall have a magnificent foreshore boulevard stretching from Shelly Beach to St. Heliers. ' ' " ;

' Anyone who goes about the city with his em open cannot fail to have noticed that " the Chinese rtf" obtaining a : firm " footing here as fruiterers and laundrymen. Their miml 7is steadily increasing. They will soon, iff acting happens, monopolise the fruit trad© In Auckland, as they have done elsewhere, notably in Wellington. The patience, the tenacity, and the silence of these Mongolians are very striking in these days of bluster and dissatisfaction and slackness. They go on plodding from morn till night, often* far into the night, and not a sound from them. And where others fail they prosper. I wonder, what would happen; if they took it into their heads to go on the land: and perhaps some day they will do so. "John "is an inoffensive 'worker, but he cannot be treated as a negligible quantity. You remember Hood's little man ? He was so little that when he asked to bo taken into the boat room was easily found for him. But the further it got from the shore the bigger he grew, until he threatened to push everybody else into the sea. "John " must not be allowed to become too big.

■ The weary .Timmie who is bowed beneath , the weight of his responsibilities as chief of the Native Department tells us in doleful numbers that the cream of the -native land has gone, and that what is left is -tiot worth talking about. " He would challenge anyone to go round and look for the large areas of which so much was heard in a vague and' general way." The great sipostle of taihoaism will perhaps- rub his eyes when he learns that his urbane and erudite cdßeague,' Sir John. Findlav, is 'going to take up his challenge. When knight meets knight, then esquires stand .apart. Sir John Findlav is going to knock -Bir James's blatherskite into a cocked hat. ,He has discovered a vast area of a million : Hires of native land lying on either side of fee Main Trunk railway, which in the in- • terests of the electors of Parnell and of the people of the Dominion generally he weans to have settled —as soon after the elections as possible. The cream of the ; native land gone, forsooth! Not if Sir John knows itand what is it that he does not know ? Let Sir James Carroll come up ,to Parnell if he wants enlightenment regarding his own department.

I understand that trouble is anticipated iu business circles in the city in consequence of the new demands recently served If upon employers by the Office Boys' Union. |iThe union asks "for a minimum weekly ; iwage of £2 10s ; that the hours shall not kexceed six per day; that two hours shall |be allowed for lunch; that any member of the union sent on a message to any place iJXcecding a distance of one-eighth of a mile from his place of employment shall be ent titled to engage a taxi; that should he : prefer to walk, an amount equivalent to the I fare of such taxi shall be paid to him; t that, cigarette-smoking shall be permitted | in office-hours that every member shall S he addressed as Mr. /and not by his ■| christian name; that for every breach of • this rule the offender,, whether he be the employer or a servant in his employ, shall Pay to the funds of the union the sum of £5; that all articles left through error or i forgetful at any place of business at . which an office boy is employed shall, if snot claimed within half an hour, become f the property of such office boy; that all . Vie rubers of the union be granted a yearly j; holiday of one month on full pay, with an ■jallowance of not less than 5s a day for pocket-money; that when any football or | cricket match is played on any day other than • Saturday all office boys shall be granted a holiday oil such day on full . Pay; that on Saturdays work shall cease at 110.30; that any office boy, not being a , member of the union, and who fails to join I 'he union within one hour of being notified to do 80 shall be instantly dismissed; that any head of a department in any busi- • ness where an office boy is engaged who 5 may be adversely reported upon by any member of tin* union shall tender the secretary of the union a full explanation, of conduct in writing, and in the event fn Mich explanation being deemed unsatisfactory shall be dismissed bv his emas** if '~ i : '

Manv people are puzzled at the large amounts set aside for " contingencies " in various public estimates, but the most | Puzzled man appeared at a loan , proposal | 'meeting in Waitemata ' County . and wanted I'P,; know where " Contingencies Road " §? a «A He knew the locality of the other |uen)g on the proposal," and 'was quite con i"'nced that the unknown " Contingencies 1 Road " led to the house of some influential -patriot* V,