A PEEP AT PETONE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1913, Page 10

A PEEP AT PETONE

ON WASHING DAY WITH THE BUTCHERS ABSENT. VARIOUS SCENES. (By " Memor.") , A man walked along the middle of Jackson-street, Petone, on Monday afternoon in the pleasant sunshine. Somehow the well-asphalted road appealed to him more than the footpaths, though he was sober, and he went straight down thr* centre to the town's heart. He was not run over; he made no flying leap for life. He halted by the Post Office, and looked back on the quiet highway. A burgess with a business face was on a kerb, and was greeted. "Is this a normal day?" he was asked. The burgess looked shrewdly at the questioner, and then threw his* gaze along the peaceful street. " No," he said. " This is washing day. We are a working people. Not so many women will be out shopping this afternoon." It happened to be a good drying day, wiih a warm wind to help the sun, and' therefore by 3 o'clock some femininity was a-flutter in the street, and Petone's reputation vas saved. However, even if the women had tarried by the tub and lingered at the line, it would have been unfair to judge Petone by Jacksot^-street (even if it is the main street) by the state of affairs on a summer afternoon, with or without a strike of slaughtermen. It is a flat town, with many streets to divert the traffic. Moreover, why should such a town be all astir in the middle of an afternoon, with toil in factories and workshops for the men and duties at home for the * women ? Therefore the comfortable, solitary walk along the middle of Jackson-street is no reflection on Petone. A PESSIMISTIC PUBLICAN.- " The visitor was out to observe fhe effects of the meat trouble, and ran into all sorts of opinions about slaughtermen, rain, the Hutt River, Lloyd George; and the Balkan War. It 16 too early in the struggle, to preach, in a deep bass Voice, about consternation at Petone. There are faces among shopkeepers not quite happy, but sad eyes and drooping mouths are not com mon. One of ,the gloomiest traders is a publican., "It is doing- me no good at all," he ( said, while he ; swished viciously at a fly with a, little towel. "Positively no good." Customers were in the public bar (a real . bar) with handfuls of elongated brownness, but they were slow srppers ; there was vo dash in their attack of the beer. The publican's eye ran coldly along the line of glasses, whose tide ebbed far too sluggishly for his liking, and it was evident that his opinion of the honest respectable fellows was poor. How different at the time of the .last strike ! ' The slaughtermen did not disgrace themselves at the taverns, but some of them had leisure and money for a little dalliance, and the tills and cash registers gave a delightful music to the innkeepers. The men are not about the streets, nor in the hotels, nor fishing on the wharf. Obviously, they have scattered up and down the landscape. Some are in happy harvest fields, and some are on the high seas. The killers havo certainly vanished from the pub]ic gaze of Petono. £2000 A WEEK, Some shopkeepers say that they have not yet noticed, much difference in trade, but undoubtedly they will soon feel a change when all operations at the" two meat works cease. A current estimateof the money • turned over in Petone in wages from this industry is £2000 a week, which must "fee approximately correct. In the busiest part of the season last year 81 slaughtermen were employed "by tho Gear Company and 63 by the Meal Export Company. The "casuals" at the two works— comprising all hand's outside the killers— totalled 442. Thus, , the aggregate of workers was 586, and the earnings (including overtime) amounted to about £3000 a week. As the homes of a large number of Ngaliauranga hands are in Petone, it is reasonable to credit this town with at least two-thirds of that £3000. A sum of £2000 a week mudt represent at least a fifth of the money circulated in Petone, and therefore, if the strike ie drawn out, long faces will multiply among shopkeepers. REMEMBER TE PUNI. Epuni-street ! sad reminder of a great chief, whose monument, "To the.meniory of Te Pithi, a chief of Ngatiawa," is a perpetual reminder^ to Petone that the name of the road is a barbarism. Te Puni's grave is in a desolate, neglected cemetery, with depressing ugliness all around, emphasised by the signing and moaning of a sawmill not far away. This quarter by the waterfront is the least attractive part of the borough. The whole locality clamours for a brightening, and no doubt something will be done to keep the new esplanade (just begun) in countenance. The beach is enjoyable, but the wayfarer has to look out steadily to- sea. If he turns landward his eyes will be sorely smitten with drabness. ■ CATCHING SCENERY. Two sin"" boys, bare-legged, were knee deep tho water at the end oi tße blood-main. No crimson tinge was on the sea, but evidently the lads be lieved that the fish would co/ne to the sp.ot by force of habit, and, therefore, they .threw out jags, which they jerked fiercely. On the long wharf, that costly monument to Hope Deferred '(the expectation of the busy steamers' some day), the usual band of anglers was visible. The principal '.'take" i* scenery. The patient fisher-folk get a splendid view of Somes Island, with the yel-low-green grass in pretty contrast with the dark-hued pines, the wooded hills of Day's Bay, the houge-dotted uplands of the city, and the summer sky— and yet they look down at the wiiid-ehopped water, which ordinarily yield- only a few misguided "spotties." "The wharf has also another use. Somebody has fixed up a spring-board, and -bathers pass a vote of thanks to the Harbour Board fpr the wharf, without which the thrilling spring would not be possible. A FEW COMPLAINTS. Moving about the town one hears a variety of gossip. One resident complained that men of \he Railway Workshops were not always fair to the place where they live. They were able to get privilege tickets to Wellington, where most of their shopping was done. . Perhaps "most" is an exaggeration, but that was the word used. Another blamed shopkeepers for losing trade. "I go in for a certain article," he said. "I am told it is not stocked. Well, as 1 have to buy it, in Wellington, I decide to get other things there, too while I am r»t it." Be quoted the existence of a single ironmonger's shop, the only one for the whole of Petone, as evidence that the city caught much of the business which should normally go to the town. Anothpr referred to the railway, dparer "than the road for the haulage of goode. Some of the blame may be due to • the railway, but not oil the fault lies with the department. The road van can take goods direct from tho city merchant to i> Petone shop. It is one handling into the vehicle. If the railway •j is used, the handling is multiplied — the trip to the station, tha wiihvuy run uiitf furthtn caitagrj at I'etone, for the eUQun to uut clwfife Lv tha ku.ijiu'.'ea wyutru,,