CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17874, 3 March 1920, Page 8

CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

G. Wright, of lUosgiol, describes as erroneous and misleading tho statement Hint only the proprietor.-; of a few of 'lie small shops in Mosgiel have decided to observe tho Saturday half-holiday. irately, he fays, tlio grocers, butchers, and bootmakers of Mosgiel have notified tin? inspector of factories that they intend to observe Snturduv as from March 1 for tlio weekly li.ilf-holi-day. After tho exempted businesses are left out, this will leave the proprietors or threu drapers' shops, who employ no labour, as objectors to tho reform. " Progress" ridicules I lie statement by t : lie ranger employed by the Mosgiel Boroug'h Council that the streets are fairly free of wandering wifcHe. (.'iitt-le, re says, arc grazed day and night on many of tho back streets. The other morning' ho luicl occasion to go round some of (he streets, and ho counted 15 cattle ('horses niid cows) within a quarter of a mile radius. " Freetnulo " combats the suggestion that t'ho oxistenco of co-operative cecioties 'would reduco tho cost of living. The reverse would bo the nase, as all foodstuffs in eaopernlive stores an? higher in price ihnn in private stores. Co-operative stores cut down because everything is centralised, and everyone in their employment has to do the work of two or three hamlf. The 00-operativo business at Home is -worth many millions, but tho people, as a whole, do not seem to be any better off. In fact, if t.he truth were known, the influence of the business has something to do with the high cost of living, as the stares have a groat say, lx>th in British and American markets. The "co-op." is a gigantic trust, and food and dothes cost just as much at Home, with all its co-operative stores, as in Dunedin, with private shops.

"To Take a Poll" criticises the condition of tho streets in St. Kiichi. iho roadway being ornamented with weeds and tho footpaths be in ft a series (if water-holes of various dimensions, and expresses tho opinion that it is u mystery, "xoept to those interested, why this borough should be permitted to "paddle its own canoo" in the way it. tloc? to the detriment of the e;ty an a whole. It would bo interesting, ho thinks, to know who was tho very sapient politician who contrived to secure the legislation which permitted boroughs to spoil a grand general scheme, and to inflict a vile system of taxation on '.ininiprovod values of sections which no one wants to buv. ,

''Hillside Worker" writes that tho Inst tiring tbut is wanted by ruilwavmen is anything- in tho nature of direct action, but, if they are deliberately cornered, it is their lost resort-. He asks whether it is known that in August, 1914, the A.S.R.S. executive was instructed to demand a rise of 2s tier day because of the then difficulty of making both ends meet; that the executive derided tljat the demand should not be made during the period of tho war ;thafc the railwaymen's wives have had to scrape, screw, and economise ever since: that fortunes hnvsv been made by many who have been dealing in the necessaries of life since that time: that tho Government, policy of " wait, and see" has been in force all the time ; and that, raihvayjnen aro still waiting, and are likely to wait, undess something- i$ oione by themselves to force the position? Tie also asks whether it is known that the management of the railways 'has neglected, for a period of nine months, to moot the executive and deal with the men's grievances, or tint 100 grievances were tabulated for the lp-st interview which tho General Manap;er found no time to hold.

— Sailor, sheep-farmer, miner, journalist, and preacher, tho career of the Rov. Lionel S. Fletcher, a young Australian who will shortly conduct services at the Congregational Church, Sheffield, provides a striking romance. When he was 16 he wont to sea. roamed thj world in all directions, and ultimately decidcd to settle down in Australia., where he tried his luck on farms and ijqldlielfls before settling down as a journalist. Fourteen years o£o he felt the call of the Ghurch, and ultimatolv became one of the most popular evangelical missioners "down under."

&RROT 6RAMO.