Untitled

Progress, Volume XVIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1922, Page 31

New Zealand property owners will be interested to know that there exist in Melbourne at the present time, about seventeen different electrical undertakings for the supply and distribution of current, four of which are large generating concerns and the remainder distributing agencies. These all differ in voltage, frequency and phase, and this has been found so inconvenient that the standardising of the supply has become imperative. * * * Systems in engineering shops have done much to eliminate man labour and this was particularly noticed in the Harvester workshops, Victoria, where everything possible was mechanically handled. In one instance, hundreds of parts of machines were dipped into a vat of red lead by a mechanical device, and thus the labour of forty painters was saved, and the work done more efficiently. * * *

Australian hardwood is noted for its durability and strength, but despite these excellent qualities, an Australian authority complains that the home article is too often passed by in favour of American and other imported softwoods such as Oregon, when Australian hardwood could be used to better advantage.