NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16253, 12 June 1916, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SHEFFIELD AND GERMAN GOODS.

The .British Board of Trade, at Home and through its commissioners in the Dominions, is actively carrying out its policy of supplying British manufacturers with information to assist them in replacing former German goods and of placing consumers in touch with the manufacturers. Collections of samples, totalling over 7000, and covering practically every trade, are now being exhibited in the various English industrial centres. At Sheffield great interest was displayed, and the special arrangements made for parties of workmen received much encouragement. The workmen showed a remarkably intelligent and critical interest in the samples, many of them making copious notes on the quality, prices, and measurements of the goods, and in some cases taking full scale drawings of items of special interest. The inference is that the working men of Great Britain, as well as the manufacturers, are determined to take a new view of foreign competition, and to make a serious attempt to grapple with it. The interest so taken is all the more remarkable, because in Sheffield both masters and workmen are very proud of the high standard of craftsmanship associated with the name of their city throughout the world, and one of the difficulties which has had to be faced in the past by manufacturers in competing with some German products has been the fact that workmen have refused to work on low-grade material, and, indeed, have refused to believe that goods of the quality and price shown have been made at all. RAILW A YMEN AS SOLDIERS. The action of our National Cabinet in not claiming special exemption under the Military Service Bill for State railway employees draws attention to the experience of the United Kingdom. A very large proportion of British railway employees have enlisted, and many others have attested under the " Derby " scheme. Including both these classes the percentage is in some cases as high as 87 of those of military age. Few railways have lost to the colours less than 16 per cent, of their men, and since the traffic has been heavier than ever before in railway history, long hours and heavy work have necessarily been the portion of those left behind. It speaks well for the men that, in spite of this, complaints as to excessive hours have been actually less than in some recent normal years. This fact, says Engineering, should be borne in mind when the purblindness of certain sections of workmen on the Tyne and Clyde raises fears as to whether democracy really deserves to win in this war between, the aristocratic and democratic ideals. The places of the absent railwaymen have been made good in part by harder work on the part of those left, and in part by the employment of women. The companies report very favourably i on the results of this experiment, which may indeed lead to some important changes in methods of work. The Great Northern Railway for example, is now analysing and making up accounts by unskilled girl labour which formerly required the services of a very expert and experienced clerical staff. This has become possible owing to the adoption of electric tabulating and sorting machines. These are said to have been devised nearly a-quarter of a century ago for analysing the United States census returns. The items to be analysed and aggregated are represented by holes punched in cards similaf to those used for the Jacquard loom. These cards are fed into the sorting and analysing machines, which analyse and tabulate automatically the various entries.