Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 3593, 23 January 1923, Page 3

The return of infectious diseases for the Dunedin and Fever Hospitals for the week ended Monday, January 15, is as follows: Diphtheria : Admitted none, discharged none, died none, remaining four. Scarlet fever: Admitted none, discharged none, died none, remaining none. Measles: Admitted two, discharged one, died none, remaining two. Typhoid: Admitted one, discharged none, died none, remaining one. Total number remaining in hospital, seven. Thirty-seven tons of fruit left Beaumont on the 12t;i and 42 tons on the 13th, representing 6080 cases (writes our correspondent). Owing to unsettled weather conditions picking operations were hampered during these days, but present indications are for more settled weather. Large consignments of apricots are going forward to the North Island and West Coast A monument to the memory of the Australian and New Zealand mounted men who fought in Egypt and Palestine is to be erected at a spot near the junction of the Suez Canal with the Mediterranean Sea. The locality has been donated by the Port Said authorities. The monument is to take the form of two mounted troopers, one of the Australian Light Horse, and ( the other of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, looking out eastward over the canal and the Sinai desert. The models are to be Main Body men and horses. A Wellington Press Association message states that following upon the reading of a paper before the ethnographical sec-, tion of the Science Congress by Captains Pitt-Rivers on ‘‘The Decline and Extinction of Certain Races in the Pacific,” a series of resolutions were passed calling on tho Governments of Australia and New Zealand, without delay, to take steps to segregate and prevent the destruction of the primitive races within their dependencies, and appointing a committee to inquire into the factors contributing to the decline of certain native races in the Pacific. A Wellington Press Association, message says that a meeting of veterinary surgeons attending the Science Congress was held last night., when it was decided to form a New Zealand Veterinary Surgeons’ Association, Mr W. T. Collins (Wellington) being appointed secretary of the committee to take the necessary steps. Fire destroyed a store at Hakawai on Wednesday (states a Greymouth Press Association message), and also the residence of the owner, Leonard P. Kinzett. The Post Office was attached to the store, but all mail matter was saved. The damage is estimated at £2OO. The buildings were insured.

“That the relations of Capital and Labour be reversed, and that Capital be paid a pre-determined rate and assured against risks, and that Labour take all n can make out of the proceeds of the venture by increased efficiency and application,” was the suggestion contained in a paper read before the Science Congress last week by Mr G. H. V. Hamilton, a practical man controlling a saw-milling company with 500 hands (states a Wellington Press Association telegram). At present (he said) Labour’s wage was pre-determined on a basis permitting of bare subsistence. The proposed scheme would average a higher standard of efficiency, and would give the knowledge that every employee would receive his rightful share of proceeds of his efforts, the employee to have such measure of control in the business as was justified by the sendees rendered. A premium on the bank rate to cover risks could be paid over the pre-determined rate to cover Capital’s risk; half the directorate to be elected by the Capital shareholders, and half by the Labour shareholders. Competition and taxation would safeguard the consumer’s legal status, without which the scheme would be impossible on a permanent basis. In many lines of retail business there seems to be a danger of overcrowding, observes the Mercantile Gazette. “During the war period when trade was good and prices were soaring anyone with moderate capital could get a start, but now that competition is becoming keener a large number of the new entrants to the retail field find that they are up against it. When prices were on the up grade it did not take any particular skill or ability to make a success because the main requisite was to sell. Nowadays the difference between profit and Moss is measured by a trader’s ability to ! buy. During the past year we regret to state that a large number of retailers either had to compromise with their creditors or go through the Bankruptcy Court, and in our opinion the reason in many cases has been that the trader should never have i started in business on his own account at j all.” . The following is a summary of the notii fications of infectious disease received in the office of the Dunedin Hospital Board during the month of December: —Scarlet ! fever, 10 (Waitaki 1, Otago 2, South Chago ;2, Southland 4, Wallace 1); tuberculosis, i 17 (Waitaki 1, Otago 9, South Otago 1, ! Maniototo 3, Southland 2, Wallace 1); 1 diphtheria, 7 (Otago. 4, Southland 3); acute primary pneumonia, 17 (Waitaki I 10, South Otago 1, Vincent 3, Southj land 2, Wallace 1); lethargic en- ' cephalitis, 1 (Waitaki); erysipelas 2 i {Vincent 1, Wallace 1; puerperal septicEemia, 1 (Otago) ; hydatids, 3 (Otago The following deaths were reported by undertakers: —Tuberculosis, 13 (Otago 6, !*laniototo 2, Southland 4, Wallace 1); acute

primary pneumonia, 2 (Waitaki 1, Wallace 1). Owing to a misunderstanding regarding the bookings, slaughtering did not commence at the South Otago Freezing Works on the 17th. Over 609 sheep and lambs were in the yards ready for the operations, which commenced on the 18th. Life-saving devices which have not yet been installed on any other liner are carried on the liner Avon, which sailed recently from Southampton for Buenos Aires. These fixtures were tested in port and found to he extremely effective. In the first place, signs to the number of 28 have been placed on the decks of the liner, each indicating the location of the boat stations. These signs are extremely ingenious, for they show quite as effectively at night-time as in daylight, without the addition of any light to illuminate them. This effect has been obtained by a series of prisms which reflect, stray rays of light., including sea phosphorescence. Another notable innovation lias been the fitting throughout the ship of electric gongs manipulated from the bridge. Twenty of these have been installed in various portions of the passenger accommodation, while the remainder have been installed in the crew’s quarters. These alarms, which will be utilised for announcing preliminary boat drills when the vessel leaves the port, and also for the purpose of giving alarm in cases of disaster, possess many advantages over other warning signals, inasmuch that the noise they make when put into operation is unlike any other sound which might be met, with at sea. When once set sounding they continue to ring until stopped from the bridge. The company has also placed a notice, printed in English. French, and Spanish, in the cabins of all the passengers, calling attention to the boat stations and giving instructions as to action to be taken in case of emergency. The sale is reported of the hull of the one-time Government training ship, the Amokura, to the Westport Coal Company for use as a coal hulk in Wellington (states a Wellington Press Association message). The vessel was launched at Greenock in 1889 and was bought by the Government in 1905. She was bought from the Government early in September of last year by Messrs Jory and M‘Whannel, of Wellington, and since they have been engaged in removing her boilers and machinery and dismantling the fittings. Another important sale of property in Lamhton Quay (Wellington) has been effected (reports a Press Association telegram). The premises were sold by Mr Gerald Fitzgerald to Mr James Stewart, who intends to make modern improvements. The land is valued at £6OO per foot, «t which price it was sold.

Recent visitors to the King Country who have returned from holiday trips in that direction speak with interest and amusement of the efforts cf some of the leading Maoris in the district on Llogmonay night, as the New Year came in, to “first foot” some of their Scottish neighbours. The ceremony was carried out in no half-hearted way (says the Auckland Star), bells being rung as the houses were approached, and afterwards Highland reels were intermixed with Maori liakas and nose-rubbing. Cupboards were depleted and bottles.,, were emptied, and it is very hard to say who enjoyed the fun most.. Certain it was that when the farmers rose on the New Year’s morn they looked out on their lands and their estates feeling that everything looked rosy for the future, and that the New Year had opened well, and the Maori, as he went down to his favourite shady spot by the river to patch a few big “tunas” for New Year’s dinner at the pa, was . heard to ejaculate several times, as is the custom of the old-time Maori when he is ruminating over past events, “Kapai ! kapai ! the Scotchman he tire good fellow.”