INDUSTRIAL NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 30

INDUSTRIAL NOTES,

A sensation has been rauecd in the Scottish mineral oil trade by the stoppage of the Linlithgow Oil Company (Limited). It was started in 1684, but proved unfortunate from the outset, and has only paid a single dividend on the ordinary and another on the preference shares. The £5 shares were last quoted on the Glasgow Stock Exchange at 3s 9d. The shareholders are an exceptionally strong body, including such men as Lord Rosebery and Sir Charles Tennant, as well as several of the Scottish banks. It jr expected that the> sum lost by the company's operations from first to last will be about £200,000; while 600 workmen will be thrown out of employment. A new church which has just been built for the workmen and their families will be of no use. as they wj!l have to leave the district. The Hcrn^and Oil Company, which had very extensive relations with the Linlithgow Oil Company, has had to make large reductions in ite rates of wages and in other way-, the workmen unwillingly accepting these rather than face the alternative of the closing of this company's works ni'-o. ft is gratifying to have to record that the prolonged depression in the tweed trade on the Borders has given place to a season of great activity. This i? in gr^at measure caused by the receipt of large Government orders, but those from private sources are also large. It is quite refreshing to read oncp more of factories being enlarged mid of the demand for skilled labour exceeding the supply. In Gahisliieln wome of the nullfind it necessary to ha\e a night shift. The orders in hand will assure ample work for some months. In Arbroath. where the flux trede ha? been very depressed for a eonsideiablc time, there are some signs of improvement, owing to the receipt of several Government orders The flax crop this year i= reported to be a liPtter one, and it is hoped this will help to bring back better time*. From Glasgow it is reported that the con struction of a line of mono-rail between that city and Edinburgh is being considered. A route has been mapped out. and the plans submitted to the Board of Tiade. It is proposed to have no inlet mediate Mation=;, and to iiin six trains pei hour, each train carrying' not more than 100 passenger-. The time allotted to the journey either wa> i<- 25 minutes, which makes the running tobe at the rate of 117 miles per hour. I am afraid the sc-hen-p i» too tempting- 101 early realisation, and the existing railways are sure to oppose it strenuou.slv. The locomotive work* of the Great North of Scotland railway hay ing l>een transferred from Kittvbrewster to Inverurie. the freedom of the lattei place hat- :ust been confeired upon Dr Ferguson, of Kinmundy. the chairman of the Railway Company. The great firm of Vic-ker*. Son-, and Maxim has ju^t acquired a half interest in the. firm of Beardmore and Co.. Glasgow. This is the latent of various indications that industrial enterprise in the future, will fall increasingly into the hands of huge concern* formed by amalgamating many smaller our;. A monster bin^t was fired the other d.-'v in i he pranitp" quarry at Bonavve In 10 \\e<»k- a mine 70; t lonij, with two arms of 50ft. each terminating in a chamber, were cliiven mm the ..olid rock Then ?.o.ooolb of gunpowder were placed within it and e\ulo(!ed. and 251) 000 ton" of ro< k vc re di-> K.rlaecl DRINK AND CRIME IV .SCOTLAND Colonel M'Hardv. C.B . at a meeting of 'he Stcjtti s h So( iety of Econoniicts. held in Edinburgh, read an interesting paper on "The Statistics of Crime in Scotland, and the Cn«t to the State." Colonel M - Hardv. I -l-ould mention, is chairman of tho Scottish I'r.^oti C«;-.iiini-sionerf, and lii« ugiiu>> may therefore be taken a^ authoritative They l elated to the year 1900. during which the police of Scotland dealt with 166,000 ca.-,cs, involving about 180.000 individuals. Allow ins f° r repeated com ictions of the same culprit, ho said it might be taken that 142.000 different individual- were proceeded stj.iinst. This vva_s the highest total for 20 ve-T? The most numerous charges were as follow: — Breach ol the ucacej 64.000; drun

kenness. 44-.OOO : and theft, 13,000. Colonel M'Hardv added that for offenders of the lower classes imprisonment had lost its terrors, aa the prisons were far more com fortable than their own squalid abode* ; and the average length of simple imprisonment did not now exceed 15 day~. During 1900 the amount of money received in fines and forfeited pledges wa- £50,000. He charged tho bulk of Scottish criminality to drunkenness, and "-aid that he b°lie\ed that if intemperance could bo cured the prison population would practically collapse. It was fourd that not more than 6 per cent, of the prisoners were teetotallers Colonel M'Harcly also laid .stre^ upon the necessity of piopcr training for children. At present, i\en if the} reformed every man and woman in custf dy, they would have a fresh crop of about 15.000 prisoners next year. ttoii'C discussion followed the reading of the paper, and in replying to it Colonel M" Hardy -aid that the number of Irishmen vi Scottish prison- was difficult to collate, but. as fai as could be made out, it con ■•muted »rout a third of the whole. It was the per-on described as a " labourer," but who did not labour, who affected the prison returns. When this person got money into his hand* lu> did not know how to use it, r.nd it wa- a fact that he was the dominant featuie of a prison. The class of respectable artisans wa< as fine- a c'ass a3 could be got, and whether their wages were raised or lowered it made no difference upon the prison returns. He believed it was the case that serious crime was slightly decreasing. If Scotland could get rid of its "drunks" it would have the finest record upon the face of the globe.