LOCAL AND GENERAL

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20044, 6 September 1920, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr R. D. Martin, secretarv of the Confectioners’ and Biscuit-makers’ Union, sent a telegram to Mr Massey, stating that owing to the dispute in the sugar works at Auckland, 700 workers were idle in Christchurch, and asking the Prime Minister to give some help. Mr Martin received tho following reply,l regret to hoar of the unemployment caused through sugar works labour dispute in Auckland. Everything possible, is Being done to expediatc a settlement, which, it is hoped, will bo arrived at shortly.” i\| r Martin telegraphed to Mr J. M’Comhs, M.P., asking if lie could suggest any action the union might take. Mr M’Combs replied “ I discussed the possibility of securing for Christchurch some of"the light brown sugar which is arriving from Fiji, hut as this anight only lead to further complication, i think nothing further can be done. ' Tho Hon E. P. Ime, who did so much to try to settle the dispute, inforhrod me that the' Arbitration Court’s award will probably be issued on Tuesday, and if it is satisfaciory that will be the end of the trouble.” The executive of the South Canterbury .Fanners’ Union passed a resolution that the Government should be a.sited to fix the price of wheat for the 1921-22 crop. The price) should he lixed betorc October,- to give full time for preparation of the land. A combination of farmers’ organisations was formed to guarantee the salary of a veterinary surgeon for the district. “Is there not some graduated road into tho realm of literature?” Mr W. l>. Andrews was asked after his lecture on Saturday night. The questioner spoke of the obstacles which faced the beginner who tried to master Shakespeare and Browning. Mr Andrews gave no indication of any such way, but said that if a man conscientiously studied the works of tho authors mentioned ho would at least realise the limitations of his own knowledge, “ which useful realisation,” lie continued, “.is more than some of us gam even in a university course.” “I was reading a modern play tho other evening—a very modern play,” said Mr W. IX Andrews during a lecture on Saturday night. “ u bored mo to tears. After i turned in 1 reached down from my bookshelf JBunyau’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ and looked up the passage which describes how Christiana’ enters the house of the Inter-preter-and is shown the man with the muck-rake who, though one stood over his head with a celestial crown in his hand, proffering it to him, ‘ did neither look up nor regard, hub raked to himself the straws, the small sticks and tho dust on tho floor.’ Christiana exclaimed. ‘O, deliver me from -this muck-rake!’ and 1 found that that exactly fitted the play I had been reading.” “ It was commonly urged that the telephone subscriber, being an exceedingly poor operator, could not be trusted to manipulate thq calling device corrcctly,” stated Mr D. E. Parton, de-puty-district engineer, in a lecture propared by him and read at Canterbury College on Saturday night. “This was only a-matter of education, and the presence of automatic stamping machines in tfie business community soon demonstrated that the public was not slow to help itself. As a matter of fact, it is not at all a bad idea to put some of tho responsibility of operating on the shoulders of subscribers. In this case it is entirely the caller’s fault if ho fails to manipulate the dial correcty- He is practically asked to spell out his number like a school child using picture blocks, and yet some people ask why they should be called upon to do so much.” Replying to questions during the discussion of the Agricultural Department vote in the House of Representatives, alter the telegraph office closed on Saturday morning, Mr Massey, referral" to Wauru, said it would be a- year before sufficient crushing plant was availnble, so that farmers could not expect immediate supplies of superphosphates, ft was hoped that u shipment of . phosphate from Nauru would be received soon, when business would be got into running order. It was expected there would be a saving of thirty shillings a ton on. present prices. He believed 1 that satisfactory arrangements could be made for distribution. Rock could not bo shipped ready crushed from Nauru, owing to the risk of deterioration through getting wet while loading through the surf. The solution of tiro difficulty was for farmers to erect theiroonw n crushing plants and if they did so he would.be prepared to give them financial backing. “ Records now kept in automatic exchanges reduce trouble and troublennding to a fine art,” it was said in rrT'i.i lecture delivered at Canterbury on Saturday night. In one American exchange it nas found that complaints averaged one per station per year. One thousand switches averaged less than sixty cases of trouble per month, or one each per nineteen months. There was an average of one per lino per six and a half years on 2300 line switches. Tho total office troubles averaged less than one per line every five years.” At the monthly meeting of the Ashburton County Council the South Rakaia Road Board applied for 200 con--2,, 0 pipes for water-race crossings. The engineer stated that he understood J a ™J? ten - d i ed to l>ut in Pipes 20, 40 ™ d boft i } n , dc ' ® , ' ( * ti,e approximate cost would bo £lO5. The application involved 120 pipes covering fourteen crossings, all of which were necessary'. Tiro present value of the pipes would be TB3 12s m Ashburton. At the moment there were only four pipes in the yard and no prospect of constructing more’ owing to the shortage of cement. One councillor said it was a question of houses or water-race bridges, and the .former should have the preference It was decided to supply pipes M became available. 3 Hundreds of Christchurch citizen® have been cured by Dr Fellows Pile Cones when every other known remedy has failed. Price 3s 6d box, from chem ists, or direct Loaaby and Co., chemists (opp. Bnllantyne s). x There is a distinctive quality , u our wedding groups and portraits that makes them worthy as a record of the °, f £ ol ir v life - Mini Webb, Petersen’s Bmld’ngs, 252. Hitrn Street. 'Phono 1989. • j For rapid and -efficient work in the garden, Wheel Hoes have become necessary. The best though it is the lowest in price, is tiro “ True Temper ” prices 21s. Obtainable from Hastie, Bull and Pickering, 113, Cashel St j