The Factories Act.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10501, 23 November 1901, Page 2

The Factories Act.

i- -. • As the Factories Act, 1901, is now in force, it is as well that the attention of factory-owners and those interested should be drawn to the sections of the Act relating to the working hours, overtime, wages, and holidays of femloyes. Section 18 is, roughly, as follows: —Subject'to the provisions' of this Act, a male worker (male over 16 years of age) shall not be employed in or about, a factory for more than 48 hours, excluding meal-times, in anyone week, for more than 8} in any one day, nor for more than five hours without an interval of three-quarters of an hour for a meal. -These working hours do not apply to any male worker getting up steam for machinery in a factory or to the following trades: — Freezing works, dairy factories (including creameries), fcllmongeries and pelt works, fish-curin% works, jam factories (during small fruit season), bacon factories, and sausage-casing making works. Section 19 refers to the working hours of women (a female of any age) and boys (male under 16 years of age). Not more than 45 hours, excluding meal-times, in any one week, nor more than 8J hours, excluding meal-times, in any one day, nor for more than 4J hours without an interval of at least three-quarters of an hour for a meal, may be worked. The working hours of all workers may be extended, with certain limits for time and days, of women and boys. Overtime is to be paid for at not less than one-fourth as much again as the ordinary rate, but in no case less than 6d per hour. Labour Day is. added to the number of statutory holidays, which are six in all. The weekly, .half-holiday is now Saturday afternoon for all factories. The date of registration of factories is to bo the Ist of April in each year. Certificates of registration in Jorce an the 31st December next are to continue in force until the close of the last day of March, 1902. The other sections of the Act do not differ materially from those on the same subjects in the old Act. On our first page will be found inceresting reading matter under xaa following headings: —"Accidents and Fatalities,'" "Condensed Cables arid Tolegrams," -"School Examinations," "Sporting," etc. The Palmerston Band has decided to enter for the New Plymouth contest. The takings at the Auckland A. and P. show last week were lust under JBSOO. A Motopiko (Nelson) farmer had fifty cattle down with tutu poisoning. Seven cows died. Tho Hawera Borough Council is strictly enforcing the Borough building regulations. The Literary World reports that M. Jules Verne, the -well-known author, has become totally blinil ■ It is, rumoured that Mr John Allen, S.M., is to be retired from the Bench imediately, after 41 years' service. During the past four years 17,832,728 frozen rabbits and 28,140,875 rabbit skins have been exported from New Zealand. It is estimated that the postponement of tho America Cup races cost Sir Thos. Lipton and the New York Yacht Club about .£50,000. Mr W. H. Mann has been .elected unopposed for tho extradordinary vacnucjr in the Tokomaru Riding, Waitotara County Council. Tho Durban Town Council has decided to erect, at a cost of .£3OO, a memorial to the Natal Volunteers who have fallen during the war. Captain A. H. Russell, of the Hawke's •Bay Mounted' Rifles (a son of Captain Russell, M.H.R.), is about to make a twelve-months' trip to the Old Country. According to the Japan Advertiser, a band of Mormon missionaries in Yokohama have concluded that Japan offers an unfruitful field for enterprise, and have abandoned their plans. An exchange says that in an essay on the royal visit a small schoolboy at Arrowtown, Otago, wrote. that "four Ministers wero knighted, and the Hou. Mr Seddon is now Saint Richard Seddon." Mr S. Brown, of Wellington, and Mr R.- Slater, of Dunedin, have been reelected representatives of the employers and the workers respectively on the Arbitration Court Bonoh. The Dunedin Star is responsible for the statement that Mr Hardy, member for Selwyn, is so disgusted with tho late sittings and the conduct of Parliamentary business that he has decided not to seek election" for a second term. Tho work of- applying the Westinghousi brake to the rolling stock on the Wellington section of the lailways will probably occupy about six. months. After that, the stocl? on the Auckland section will bo fitted with the brake. The Timaru Horald chronicles a, remarkable instance of the homing faculty of the pigeon. Two months agro a couple of pigeonß wero taken from Fair-lie to Napier in a box, and after having been al tlio latterplaco <v week wore let out of the box. The birds flew off, and were not seen again until Friday, when they turned up at Fsiirlie. A mile from McKcnzie (says the Press) a number of- springs have btarted up, whore there were none bo'ore, and all the drinking water in the township is milky. There are fissures everywhere. The bridge In the middle of the settlement is quite unsafe for traffic, though that ovor tho Hurunui ;s; s still all right. When Benjamin Franklin died in 1794 ho left a small sum of uoney which was not to be used until the 20th century. His gift is at last available, and the sum, the goodly one of .4J75.000, having been invested at compound interest, the trustees of the l-'ranlrlin fund have decided to use the money fpr tho erection of a Franklin Institute, in Franklin Square, Boston. Lewis Wilkins, stated to be the tallest maa in the world, was born at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1574. He is in height Bft 2in, is 66in round the waist, and weighs 26st: In gloves he takes size 14, and a penny will pass easily through any of his rings. The inner circumferenco of his hat is 27in. Mr Wilkins is of British descent. At 10 years old he stood 6ft high. Lieutenant-Colonel Jowsey and Major Crawshaw met at the Drillshed on Monday night (says the Timaru Herald), and the latter mentioned the fact that this week is the first anniversary of the I'ivlicßt week they had in South Africa; and they recalled Bronkhurst Spruit, Rhenostcrkop, Wagon Drift, and othor names memorable to tho New Zealand Third Contingent. A Gordon Highlander volunteer says that lately, on account of rioting on the part of Scandinavians and others, the family of De Wet, who live in Johannesburg, have hod police protection. "In the morning," he writes," "Miss De Wet came out and gave me a cup of cocoa. She is a girl of about 18. ' I said to her it was about timo-^the war was done, and she replied that the family had urged their father to surrender, but he told them he would 'never give in.'" —Natal Mercury. i !

A committee of five has been ap- : poinaed to dispose of the =£52 3s 10a, the balance realised from the recent Chnrity Fete. The tender of Mr Walter Freeman, which was accepted for the dining cars on the Palmerston North —New Plymouth line, was JJIOOO per annum. A child, named Foote, residing at Tapuata, near Dannevirke, swallowed some matches on Friday last, and is now dangerously ill; in fact, is not expected to recover. Two Boer refugees in the Aliwal North concentration camp were recently found to have saved 2001 b flour, 14lb sugar, and 121 b coffee out of rations supplied to them by the Government. The novel' theory is put forward that the Cobra was wrecked through striking a whale, one dead and severely wounded having been found on the beach not far from the scene of the casualty. A private letter received in-Dunedin states that the reason for Captain Sowden, resigning command of the White Star steamer Delphic is Vhat he has inherited a large fortune. Something new has been started by the Otago A. and P. Society. They are offering two prizes, one for the best field of broadcast turnips up to fifteen acres in size, and the other for the best field up to Jthirty acres. There are many grazing farm properties in Northern-Queensland for sale either unstocked or with only "a few sheep on them. One farm of 20,00ff acres, moderately improved,' was sold abo at the middle of last month. The only stock on the place at the time of sale were about 200 wethers and some 40 horses. It brought .£3401. Several other stations have been offered without getting even a bid. Mr John Gammell, writing to the Christchurch Press on the Bible in schools agitation, says":—"The charm of our 'schools aa at present conducted is the absolute veracity of the teaching that goes on in them, a- virtue they must necessarily lose if the popular theology ever came to be included in the curriculum; they would then become institutions as degrading in their influence as our existing churches." A shocking incident came to light at the Collingwood (Victoria) Court on the 6th inst. A woman, 27 years of age, had been arrested for drunkenness; and evidence tendered by the police elicited the fact that the woman, when arrested the previous evening, was carrying a dead childj about six months of ape, in her arms, and had actually carried the dead infant about the streets in the afternoon. The case was remanded for a week. Pickpockets in Melbourne are pastmasters of the art. Recently a miner from the west was standing on tho Post Office steps, when a gentlemanly-look-ing individual trod heavily upon his toes. Then stepping up to the miner, he placed a hand upon liis shoulder and sympatheically apologised for his clumsiness.' The apology was willingly accepted, but some little time later the miner found that the polite apologist had relieved him of a pocketbook containing 15 sovereigns and other valuables. Liverpool has (the Pall Mall Gazette says) the biggest warehouse in the world. It is built beside the docks, and is intended to house the imports of to bacco which form so important a part of • Liverpool trade. The warehouse ie 725} feet in length, 165 feet deep, and 124 feet 10 inches high. The ground area is 13,300 square yards, and the area of the several floors 174,098 square yards. There are at present in b«nd in .Liverpool some 93,000 hogsheads of tobacco, weighing 50,000 tons, "hi-.h is equal, roughly estimated, to » customs duty of £18,000,000. A Btartling stary of equine sagacity is told in the Globe. A horse was standing in the shafts of a carriage 'just out- j aido a provincial theatre. It had a weary look, as of one that desired repose. Suddenly it brightened up, nnd before it could be stopped it made n dash for the box office. The reasons for this unexpected behaviour gave rise to much discussion, till at last one of the crowd, more observant than the others, pointed out that the legend "To the Stalls" was written in large letters over the bos office window. This must have been a "high" school' horse." Quite recently the health of a telephone girl broke down entirely under the strain, and she was sent to her home to recruit. Tho vicar of the parish called upon her after her arrival, and to him she poured out her woes. "It is not so much the work," she said, "as the worry. You cannot imagine what it is to work the telephone hour after hour, day, after day, week after week, year afta'r year. It has simply got upon my nerve 3." "Are you sure it is the teleplione?" he sympathetically asked. ' Oh, yes, quite sure," she replied, "for I > find myself saying: 'Are you iherc?' when I kneel down at night to pay my prayers." —Onlooker. The annual' week's training of the local volunteers commenced last evening, when they went into camp on the Recreation Ground. The parade Btate i was us follows: —Garrison Band (20) under Bandmaster Buckley; Rifles (44) under Captain Hughes and Lieutenants Redmond and McFnrlano; Guards (.40) under Captain Dustin and Lieutenants Harper- and Kersley; Highlanders (46) under Captain McNaught and Lieut- | enauto Grant and Bullock. After marching over to the_ camp, the men wore ad- j dressed by Lieutenant-Colonel Watt, who gave them some good sound ndvice J and announced that a half-sovereign "would be awarded to the squad having the best kept tent. On Sunday afternoon tho Garrison Band will give an open-air conc&rt at the camp: A collection will bo taken up in aid of tho funds "to defray tho cost of the 'new bass. The camp is under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Watt and Cap-tain-Adjutant ,Neill. A somnambulist named Alvis Hocttcl, 44 years of age, met his death in Sydney on a recent Sunday. The deceased was in the habit of wandering about his house two or three times a weeje in a somnambulistic state. About a fortnight before his death ho got out of bed, went down into the shop, wrote" somothing in a book, and then went back to bed, knowing nothing afterwards of what he had done. On the Sunday night in question, some time after he went to bed, his wife pwoke 'and saw him standing up arranging the mosquito curtains. She told him to lie down and go to sleep, but instead he pushed her, turned round, and'-Mmped through the closed window,' mnaslnug the glass to fragments. He then fell on to a narrow roof, forming a veraadah, and finally landed on the footway, Bft or 10ft below, fracturing his skull and breaking several of his limbs. fTo was taken to the hospital, where he lingered for a couple, of days before he died. Regarding tho war between Venezuela and Columbia, the following itemß from Router appear in English papers to hand by tho last mail: —''New York, September 27. A telegram received here from Willemstad (Curacao) says it is reported there that 300 Venezuelans, with four guns, were captured, and that 600 were killed and. wounded or wore reported missing, in an engagement in tho Goaiira. Peninsula. The I despatch adds that the brother bf President Castro is said to have been wounded."* A later message states: — "New York, October 1. The following telegram has ' been received here from ' Willemstad : — "The disaster reported to have overtaken a ' Venezuelan force on the Goajira Peninsula on* September 14th is fully confirmed. The Venezuelans, retiring from La Hacha, were caught on both sides of a river, the bridge across which was broken. The Columbians overwhelmed them from three sides, scattering them, and they were then ambushed by Indians." 1 Passengers by yesterday's southern express train, on reaching the Fordell station, were treated to what may probably have been an unrehearsed 6cene in a comedy drama by members of the' Cosgrove Company, but which nevertheless had some effective if not humorous situations. These hinged on the desire of several creditors to exact from -the theatricals various sums of money, including hotel board, cab hire, printing, advertising, etc. Summonses had been taken out, and these were duly presented by the bailiff to the brothers William aud John Cosgrove, but to no purpose, as far as satisfying the claims wero concerned, and the* creditors, returning to town, caused orders to be issued for immediate execution, together with the' issue of distress warrants. We might add that tho comSany had financial succoss at the Opera [ouso during the season in Wanganui, taking about .£7O on Show night and, an average of from .£25 to .£3O on other nights, and the only local payments made, as far as is known, were for tho rout of tho theatre, and a suurof £2 on account for advertising in tho "Horadl." News of the future movements of the debtors will bo awaited with interest. It was learnt to-day, that -after a short, sharp skirmish at Wanganui, in which one of tho principals of the company had the worst of it with' an ox-em-ployee, they reached Wellington, the supposition .being that they. will take stoamer for "the other side." •

Captain Edwin wired at 12.50 to-day: — Strong westerly winds; glass rise; sea heavy; tides high; indications "of glass falling again after 20 hours from no-.v, with northerly "winds. One morning during this week, Mr D. Barrett, whilst fishing off the Aramoho railway' bridge, caught an eel measuring 4ft l^in., with a girth of 15 inches, and weighing 17Jlbs. This is in excess in weight and measurement of the eel recently caught in Nixon's Creek. The latest Btory from the "United States is that peach stones, treated by a special process, are being used as fuel, and. are said to be superior to any Jcind of coal. The Califorman peach canners are said to be receiving from 5s to 10s per ton for the stones, which were previously almost a useless commodity. There is said to be a~good demand for peach coal. We would remind parents whose children were born before November, 1901, and have not yet been vaccinated, that if they lave conscientious objections to vaccination, they must obtain a certificate of exemption from the Registrar of Births or a Magistrate, before the end of February next. In the' case of residents outside a borough a certificate from a J.P. will be sufficient. Mr S. J. Williams, the telegraphic operator, who 'is referred to as having "held the fort" at Cheviot through trying experience, was recently attached to the Gisborne official staff. He suffered from an- attack of -iyphoid feyer last year, and wasjlaid up at Christchurch recently with scarlet fever. Upon reporting for duty he was sent to relieve at Cheviot, where he seems to have acquitted himself admirably. — Gisborne Herald. According to census returns of religions in the colony, there is one each of the following: — Monotheist, Calvinist, Nonintrusiomst, Absolutist, Huguenot,. Pantheist, Sabbatarian, Seventh Day Lawkeeper, Occulist, -Naturalist, Infiael, Latitudinarian, Scientific Pantheist and a Sceptic. There are likewise a male and female Egoist, a brace of Truists, two Masculine Sons, two male Zoroastrians, a pair of men Evolutionists, a female and a male Dipper, two Zwinglians, a masculine and feminine Trinity, but only one Redeemed Sinner, and a single Simple Believer. No fewer than 18,295 object to state, and 882 did not specify their religion. A narrow escape from drowning occurred lately at Castlecliff, when a youngster of ten or eleven years of age, fell into the river and was being carried out to sea. Fortunately a laa named Alfred Yarrow, 13 years of age, saw what was happening, and without a moment's hesitation, plunged into the water, and after a few vigorous strokes, caught the drowning boy by his clothes, and after a hard struggle brought him safely to land. The rescue was one of the pluckiest recorded here, and we certainly think should earn young Yarrow tho Humane Society's medal for saving life, as there is not the slightest doubt that the boy whom he rescued would have been drowned but for Yarromw's timely and successful efforts to save life. We may mention that it was only last season that young Yarrow learned to swim in the Corporation Baths, under the insiruction of Messrs Mowtell and Mahoney. A correspondent writes: — Why is it that in Wanganui we have so much of the petty, paltry thieving not noticed in other places? Did anyone,_ for instance, ever see wire netting in front of the fruit exhibits at horticultural shows in the Old Country, or in other colonies? But here it is found to be absolutely necessary. Flowers in the parks and gardens of Sydney are never touched, although 1 Sydney is noted for its hoodlums and larrik ins.ln Wanganui, however, even private gardens are not respected, and many an owner has risen in tho morning to find some covctted plant has been removed, roots and all. Tho latest instance of this_ sort was at the arts and crafts exhibition, yeßterday, when it was discovered that someone had been trying to remove with a knife the centre silver plate from the large shield belonging to the Aramoho Boat Club. A watch is now kept, and it is to be hoped that if anyone is caught at this contemptible kind of meanness he will get something more than bo told "to come up for ientence when called upon."