CO-OPERATIVE LABOUR IN WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2302, 14 April 1898, Page 17

CO-OPERATIVE LABOUR IN WELLINGTON.

Wellington, April 7. Woik at Parliament Buildings ia pracfcic*ily afc a standstill, little or nothing having been done for a week. This i 3 partly due bo the weather and partly to other reasons, one of which is said to be that so many men h&ve been put on that the brickwork is ahead of the ironwork. The latter is now beginning bo arrive, bub some of the men brought from other p*rts have nob been enabled to start work, and are not likely to do co for come days. • This has led to some discontent, which , resulted in a deputation to the '.Minister for Public Works. The department deny fchfcb there has been any mistake over the specifications of the ironwork.

(Fkom Ova Own Correspondent. ) \ Wellington, April 7. The Post to-night, referring to the troubles of the Public Works department in connection with the additions to the Parliament Buildings, about which I wired you iasfc night, says :—: — " Notwithstanding the disclaimer of the Undersecretary of Work», published in our issua of yesterday, as to the iron girders for the Parliamentary Library, we have excellent reason to believe that there has been much bungling on the parb of the department. We are credibly informed, for instance, that some o? the brickwork—as much as nine courses in the case of one wall — is being taken down, and thab the ironwork intended to be placed between the lower window spaces fronting Hill street wa3 | not of tho right measurement. Further, owing to errors in laying oub the brickwork of tha main walls, the girders proved too short to j admit of the necesaary bee-riDgs. Wibh regard to the stoppage of the work, we learn that, so far as the bricklayers were concerned, they were knocked off last Thursday because of there 1 nofc being any work laid oub to enable them to conbinue bo be employed. Ib now seems thab they must be kept idle from the same cause until Tuesday week. Apart from this seeming bungling, ib would appear that too many bricklayers have bean induced to come to Wellington, & conbingent from Auckland and the neighbourhood who came down a week, ago nofc having laid a brick since their arrival. The discontent . engendered by this condition of things among the men, ib seems, resulted in a meeting, afc which a deputation was appointed to wait to-day upon the Minister for Public Works, their principal object, we understand, being to urge that a practical man should have charge of the construction work, and as to the rate of wages, &boufc which there has also been some dissatisfaction, that the ruling rate should b9 for day work at the current local rate and for night work time and a-hajf . We understand that the Minister agreed to the first proposition, but with regard to the second asked for time to consider. For the rest, we d ay add that if any intelligent citizen desires to witness for himself how the co-operative system, as directed by the Works department, is a convertible term for • How not to do it,' he has but to spend his leisure in watching the operations now being carried on at Parliament House." _________^___ Statistics ohow that in London one person in 45 is maintained by public charity, while in j New York the proportion is one in 200. Joseph Limbrick, an inmate of the Invercargill Old Men's Home, who disappeared from the institution a fortnight ago, was found on Saturday by Constable M'Chesney in Seward Bush in an exhausted condition. Apparently he had had nothing to eat since leaving the homo. His condition is critical. Applications for letters patent are gazetted as follow :— J, W. Mitchell and P. Smellie, Dunedin, for an apparatus for measuring liquids; James Gray, Dunedin, improved reversing clutch ; J. and W. Dickinson and G. E. Beaumont, Dunedin, improvements in or relating to pedal cranks for velocipedes and the like ; A. Robertson, Dausdin, improved horae- ] cover ; Baruingham aud Co., Dunediu, improvement's in cooking ranges. • Wheels in your head, ungreasecl. That's awkward. Not drink? No. Flu Flu, you know what that is? Influenza — that's not bi ought on by swallowing a box of dominoes. It's a very severe cold in every part of the body. The treatment is pure, simple, and effective.- Take Woods's Great Peppermint (Jure ; it knocks ifc out every time. Paste this Qa jjli£