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Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18583, 2 June 1930, Page 6

that the gas industry badly needs one of these operations for appendicitis. Being an old industry, it is fettered by all sorts of antiquated rules and regulations which seriously hamper its development. Take just one example. No one of my way of thinking can sympathise with rules which prevent co-operation between a municipal and a company undertaking. We are not interested in the question whether Municipality A or Company B will benefit financially we want cheap fuel and lots of it, and we want it quickly. If antiquated legal restrictions stand in the way, they ought to be abolished.

The Worker’s Interest in Scientific Fuel.

Every worker has a special intermit in the greater use of scientific fuel., Nearly everything that differentiates man from the brute is the result of using heat. Man alone cooks his food, and he alone uses tools, most of which he makes by heat. In the old days and even now far too often, the conditions of the men who handled these vital heat processes in the factories of the country were deplorable. The dirt, bad atmosphere, and intolerable physical starving and over-fatigue were, and still are. where up-to-date appliances are absent—inhuman. The vast increase in the use of scientific heat not only enables us to keep our lead in the quality of our industrial workmanship over the rest of the world, and so compete even with cheap foreign labour, but it means that gradually we are getting nearer the day when the man who works with his hands will not be so worn out. and degraded by his surroundings that he falls weakly into an inferior way of living. Crude Coal Out of Date. The use of crude oil in either home or factory is out of date, and I hope to see the day when most of the unnecessary dirt associated with industry and with large centres of population is a thing of the past. . . . The public must be served, and is not much interested in the details of petty competition. So, I may suggest, the ordin- . ary man in the street is not much interested in petty competition between rival forms of fuel. He wants a decent service suited to his varying needs and income. It is up to all of us who earn our living by supplying these wants to make the most of the country’s resources, to give as good service as possible, and hasten as much as we can the day when British industry is equipped with the best apparatus, intelligently operated by men secure enough in their jobs to take a real axiu educated interest in doing the best they can. If the industry as a whole shows, as I think my experience on the National Joint Industrial Council entitles me to say that it does show, that it is moving steadily along these lines, then it is up to the Government and the Local Authorities to give- it every support. This they can do, not only by freeing it from any restrictions which may have become unnenecessary, but by putting at its disposal every encouragement to modernise and extend its network of services which already touch thousands of industries and millions of homes. The Work of the Joint Industrial Council. In conclusion, let me say: no one will deny that the Gas Industry has in its National Joint Industrial Council, and its Regional Councils, very efficient machinery for building up and maintaining happy relations between employers and employed, and thu~ helping in many ways to attain the end in view. I have been Joint Secretary of the National Joint Industrial Council since its inception, and I share with all others connected with it a very legitimate pride in its achievements. At the outset the Council dealt with ourely labour questions, and it continues to do so with success. But this co-operation has had other results. It has led to the growth of mutual confidence and understanding between both sides, and now the Council is '•ailed to consider other questions ol a more general nature affecting thfe industry. I look forward with confidence to further developments which will benefit all connected with the industry, and we shall look to the British Commercial Gas Association, which has given me a very welcome opportunity of addressing you this morning, to find ever-increasing markets for the greater output which complete co-operation between employer and employed will produce. ...