The Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6090, 29 January 1898, Page 4

The Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

' ♦ The annual meeting of the Industrial Association last night was a notable gathering. It marked a new departure in the history of the Association, and it is to be hoped that it will prove to have been the inception of a forward policy that will be full of vigour. We do not for one moment suppose that many of our readers will be in sympathy with the remarks of the retiring president, who apparently was imbued with the idea that the progressive legislation of the country has been a bar to industrial progress. It has had no such effect, but, on the other hand, it has put a stop to many of the abuses that unfortunately exist in older lands, and it has provided means whereby disputes between the employers and the employed may be adjusted without resorb to so clumsy and costly a process as the strike or the lock-out. Indeed, the president himself proved that the industries of New Zealand had continued to make a steady, and on the whole a highly gratifying progress, the numbers employed in factories having grown from 25,851, 1894, to 36,918 in 1897 ; and during the past year alone the extra number of persons employed was no fewer than 4531. But there is a bar to industrial progress in this country, and that is to be found in the lack of patriotism. The people are their own enemies. They will buy imported goods, when they can get the locally produced ones, of a high standard of quality, and at as low a price, and when they know that money so spent must directly benefit their fellow-colonists. To < this aspect of . the matter, telling reference was jnade by Mr JFrostick, who is the Association's president for the ensuing year. He said " that the amount ' annually sent out of the colony for cloth- : ing, brewing, basketwork, boots, brushes, ' candles, cement, coal, fish, apples and 1 pears, furniture, hats and caps, jams, ' ploughs, matches, paper-making, soap, j woollen and fur goods and blankets, was ] -£1,192,376, and Canterbury's share, taken j on the basis of her population, would ] mpan £228,000 worth at English cost, or " say £304,000 at New Zetland cost." This is the sort of thing that : the Industrial Association has get to ' faghfc against "for all it is worth; " and it can do so in a variety of ways— by periodical exhibitions, whereat demonstrational ad- , vertising can be done ; by collating and , disseminating information ; by jealously , conserving the interests of colonial pro- , ducers, and by encouraging technical , education. ° 6

■ A Committee representing the friendly l societies ;of the United Kindgom has issued J a manifesto protesting against the coin- , pulsory S lck Society organised by the . London and India Joint Docks Committee. J 5?ll p « GSO HOcieties l^vo been, and a eW^'f a^ U - ndouble(i source of moral .- elevation to tW members. By the habits j of bnsui ess theyinculcate the/are a»-4L*

the grand training grounds for the duties of enlightened citizenship, and by the sobering influence of the administration of the actual affairs of life have largely contributed to the political steadiness of the nation. Any action tending to destroy these societies, to imI pair their efficiency, or to check the natural flow of membership by restrictions upon the liberty of joining, would involve an ultimate deterioration in such societies and in the class from which their members are drawn, without any corresponding advantage to the State, or to the branch of industry under the control of the Docks Joint Committee." The manifesto conchides by expressing a hope that public ■ opinion will induce the Docks Committee to restore to their employes the liberty which the law allows, and that such an alteration of the law will be obtained as to prevent any employer from restricting the right of every person to choose what friendly society he will join. During the latter part of the summer a shepherd's dog on the Down's Farm, at Dunstable, was caught in the knives of a reaping machine, with the result that both its right side legs were cut off and the animal almost bled to death. For some time the dog appeared lifeless, but the shepherd to whom it belonged would not allow it to be destroyed. He bound up its terrible wounds, put it carefully in a wheelbarrow, conveyed it home, and nursed it. Three. weeks afterwards the animal had bo far recovered as to be able to crawl and move about on its two legs. The dog now lives with the shepherd at Dunstable, and runs backwards and forwards to Down's Farm every day, the distance being about a mile. The journey is performed on the two legs on its left side. lii starting to run the dog quickly gets up, balances itself in a remarkable manner, and then rapidly hops off in the style of a large agile bird, the stumps of both right legs hanging useless. With this extraordinary mode of rapid progress it now attends the sheep exactly in the way of an ordinary uninjured dog. It is a very affectionate- animal and is now apparently full of life and health. Mr Richard Mansfield, the American actor, wrote the following lines after reading the account of the recapture of Dargai Ridge, in India, by the Gordon Highlanders on Oct. 20 : — Bulldogs, hark ! Did yonr courage fail ? Bulldogs, hark ! Did yonr glory, pale ? What of the elander that says " Decayed !" And " Gone to the dogs since the Light Brigade ?" For tho blood and bone that humbled Hap, 'Twas there again, boys, in the Dargai Gap ! Did you hear the swish of the fifing shot ? Tho roll of the drum and the rattle pot? The music that rose clear o'er that yell And thrilled through tho ranks and stirred np hell? Come, Highland laddie, head up, step forth! A crown of glory ! " Cock of the North !" You " Cock of the North," aye, pipe away ! With both stamps gone, And you won the doy ! You may lean your backs against comrades now ; They'll moisten yonr lips and- they'll kiss yoiir brow. For they fought like men, and a man may weep When he lays a man to his hist long sleep. Bulldogs who sleep on the Dargai Bidge, Fall iv ! Quick, march ! and over the bridge ! The piper's ahead, and the same old air To pipe you to heaven and veterans there ! And you'll tell the bullies who humbled Nap The glorious story of Dargai Gap. A vebt peculiar accident, and one that might have been attended with serious consequences, . occurred at Brackley Station, Northamptonshire, on the Banbury Branch of the liondon and North-Western Railway. As a train was crossing the points from the platform to the main line of rails the engine gave a distinct jump from the metals, causing the driver and fireman to lose their footing, the carriages attached being equally erratic. The train was brought to a standstill immediately, and on an examination being made it was found that by some means a copy of the New Testament had become firmly jammed between the points, which thereby being unable to close caused the jumping motion. Had a train been coming the other way it must assuredly have been thrown off the rails. Needless to say, the railway officials were making searching inquiries to discover the perpetrator of this novel outrage.