AMONG THE CO-OPERATIVES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 27

AMONG THE CO-OPERATIVES.

LIFE AT OTIRA

(From Our Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, August 14. In describing the life of the workers on the Otira tunnel the special contributor to the Press says: — "The two-up school flourishes. There is a very considerable amount of ' club' drinking, induced by the co-operative purchase of kegs or casks of beer. Fights, in which private differences are settled, are arranged and carried out with an imitation of prizering etiquette. In sports of the cleaner sort, such as football, foot races, and athletics generally, there is a very limited number of participants, but every event of the kind is freely made the subject of wagers. All tho ' amusements' are held on Sundays. Religion and education play their ports in these out-back places. A young Anglican minister, who was specially set apart for missionary work at Broken Riven and Otira, divides his time between those two places. He does his work with so much tact, kindliness, and enthusiasm that he has endeared himself to everyone. Services are also held at Otira by clergymen of other denominations, notably the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic, and Sunday schools are conducted regularly there and in Broken River. The school at Broken River has ' followed the settlement' for quite a number of years now, and it is only 12 months ago since it was- taken from a site on the other side of the river, swung across the gorge, and ieerected in its present position. Some day it will be ' moved on' again. There is a roll number of 73 children, and the average attendance is over 60. The Otira School is a more substantial building, though the present attendance is only slightly over 40. The schoolmistress has some bright material to work on. No medical man i-esides at Otira, and in the event of an accident the sufferer has to be sent to Greymouth or Kumara, or a doctor has to be brought from either of those towns — a distance of about 50 miles. A movement was initiated some time ago with the object of securing the services of a resident doctor, but the interest aroused among the tunnel hands was extremely languid. The residents were agreeable to find £150 annually, but no definite offer came from the tunnel workers, among whom accidents are fairly frequent, and who would reap the principal benefit accruing from the presence of a resident doctor. The contractors pay a heavy accident insurance bill, as may be imagined from the risky nature of the employment. There is some probability of the matter being revived, as instances have occurred lately of people in pool circumstances being called upon to pay accounts for medical attendance which were certainly larger than a poor man could afford to pay for one visit. The watches and clocks at the tunnel are half an hour in advance, not through any meridinal variation, but as a means of saving daylight. Work in the tunnel starts nominally at 8 a.m., tout really half an hour earlier. It ia easier for a man to get out of his bed when his watch says 6.30 than it would be if it said 6 o'clock. ' Wet ground' in the tunnel heading is the bete noir of the men working underground. The ■water percolates thiough the cracks in the rocks i|i places, and drips on to the men in the

heading. It is said that the water possesses some peculiar mineral quality which exercises baneful effects on the skin. Should it come into contact with an open sore, inflammation and festering are set up. Quite a number, of the men have suffered severely in this way, and a suggestion has been put forward that a» analysis of the water should be made.