WEEK-END IN SHEFFIELD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 25

WEEK-END IN SHEFFIELD

PRIME MINISTER’S VISIT TOUR OF FACTORIES AMONG THE SHEEP SHEARS (fitoir Our Own Correspondent.) (By Air Mail.) LONDON, June 29. Mr Forbes and his party arrived in Sheffield from Leeds on a Saturday afternoon. They saw some of the cricket match between the South Africans and Yorkshire, and met the criketers at d'On* the Sunday, accompanied by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield (Alderman P. J. M. Turner), the Lady Mayoress, and their daughters, and Mr E. B. Gibson (town clerk) and ws Gibson, they were taken by motor cars round Derbyshire. They went over Chatsworth House, the beautiful seat of the Duke of Devonshire. Here they received a message from the duke expressing his regret at being unable to welcome them owing to an engagement in another part of the country. _ The Monday was a very busy day. Ine programme opened with a visit to the Sheffield City Hall, and from there the party went on to the Trade Unionists Sheep Shear Co-operative Society at Onghtibridge. It was the Prime Minister s special desire to see how sheep shears were made, and his wish was satisfied at these works and also at the La l*ata works of Messrs Burgoii and Ball, Eta. This firm was established as far back as 1730, and they have been supplying sheep shears to New Zealand from the time they first came into use. They are the oldest sheep-shear makers in the world, and wherever sheep shearing is earned out it is usually with implements supplied by this firm. , , , ~ Mr Forbes was shown round by Mi Ben Hind (chairman and managing director of the firm), who took him first into the sheep shearing department, where highly-skilled operators were seen fashioning the strip steel with the aid of machinery and finally producing shears with fine cutting edges. y . Mr Forbes showed ’keen interest in Messrs Burgon and Ball’s latest ideashears fitted with a patent “gap-stop device, which ensures that the shears are always i( on the cut,” the slides behind the blades nob permitting the edges to separate or “ gap.” Before leaving the premises, the visitors were each presented with a pair of model sheep shears. Outside, in Holme lane, all the firms employees lined up and were photographed with Mr Forbes, and as the party left they were given three cheers. Mr Forbes, in expressing his thanks to Mr Hind, said how delighted he had been to watch the different processes in the manufacture of a product which is used so extensively in New Zealand'. At the works of Messrs Walker and Hall the party saw electro-plating, the casting of ingots for nickel silver, the making of seamless bodies for teapots and coffee pots, and they went through the press shop, forging shop, case-making department, the buffing and designing departments, and various finishing departments. ... ~ Mr Forbes was Introduced to an old employee, Mrs ” Sally ” Potts, who has been with the firm for 47 years. _ Before the party left, the Prime Minister expressed appreciation of all he had seen, and each visitor was presented with a pocket knife as a memento. TRUE SHEFFIELD CRAFTSMANSHIP. In honour of the occasion, the Lord Mayor entertained a representative company to luncheon at the Town Hall, where Mr Forbes was presented with a canteen of cutlery, made by Messrs George Butler and Co., Ltd., of Sheffield. Each knife bore the initials of the recipient, “G. W, F.” ‘ “ From th e people and city of Sheffield/' was the inscription on the cabinet lid.

In making the presentation, the Lord Mayor extended a cordial welcome on behalf of the city—a city of which he was proud not merely by reason of the number of its inhabitants or its beautiful surrounds, or the position it held in the history of industrial development, but because they were a progressive community, using all the arts of science and research to maintain and retain their proud reputation as the metropolis of the steel industry of the Empire. In presenting the cabinet of cutlery, the Lord Mayor described it as a perfect example of true Sheffield craftsmanship. Mr Forbes spoke at some length, emphasising the necessity of reciprocity in trade. One of the pleasantest times he had spent in England, he said, had been his visit to Sheffield. s Kef erring to the canteen of cutlery, he said that he and Mrs Forbes would treasure the gift as a memente of one of the happiest occasions they had experienced. They would never forget their visit to Sheffield and the wonderful kindness shown to them. So as not to cut the friendship, Mr Forbes observed the old custom and handed to the Lord Mayor a copper coin in exchange. DREDGER PARTS. The party next visited the EastHecla works of Messrs Iladfields, Ltd. Here they' saw the manufacture of dredger buckets and other dredger parts for New Zealand customers. Crushing machinery, railway and tramway trackwork, colliery and mining appliances, and steel forgings were other products which were inspected, while other attractions were the tours of the foundry and steel-mak-ing department and the rolling mills, which cover about five acres of ground. Accompanied by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, the New Zealand party then visited the Graves Art Gallery, where they were shown round by Dr John Rothenstein. The Prime Minister took great interest in the pictures loaned to the gallery by Viscount Galway during his term of office as Governor-General of New Zealand.