HALCOMBE NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12017, 20 March 1920, Page 4

HALCOMBE NOTES.

From Our Own Correspondent) Everyone in Halcombe and districtwho have Irish blood in their veins, and a lot more who Haven’t joined the train here on St. Patrick’s Day to go to Wanganui. *The occasion was the school picnic to Castlecliff. There have been excursions before, from Halcombe, but never has such a crowd left our village on one day to spend a few hoars by the silver, sea, as was the case, on Wednesday last. The outing was a most enjoyable one, or would have been if the journey out and home could have I been performed in anything like 5 I reasonable time. Seven boors apI proximately to do a journey of about 78 miles is a long way over the odds. The party detrained at Eaatown, and were conveyed by tramcars to Castlecliif. Owing to an oversight no arrangements had been jnade at thd' beach to cater for so large a party, and as the majority of the trippers had brought their countryappetite with them—never small at any time—and much sharpened by the sniff of ozone, a gr&jt deal of “inward” pain was experienced by not a few of the 'excursionists who expected to find more to eat than the proverbial five loaves and two small, fishes to feed such a crowd. How--ever,, the visitors had not mnch time to worry about “tucker,” as they had to leave the seashore at 3.20 to catch the train at Bastown. After a wait of an hour and twenty minutes at Marton Junction the holiday-makers got back to Halcoipbe about B.3o—five hours and twenty minutes from Castlecliff. Talk about the go-slow policy. The minors are hustlers of the first degree compared with the trains. Halcombe school children went to Feilding on Saturday last to compete in the big sports meeting organised for the schools of the district. There was a challenge shield or something for the school gaining most points in the various events, but oar school did not have a “look in,” though individual scholars caught the judge’s eye on several occasions. Who wouldn’t be a steel worker. A manifesto issued by the Employers’ Association at the start of the great steel workers’ strike in the United States showed that average •earnings of sheet rollers for an eighthour day were Heaters 84s, roughers 475, catchers 475, steel pourerl 51s 3d, vesselmen 58a 6d, engineers and manipulators 44s 9d. These were the dfiily wages, taking the £1 sterling at 4.85 dollars. After all it isn’t whac you pay but what you get for what you pay that matters.