GENERAL CABLES

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1928, Page 2

GENERAL CABLES

-il i k K.,5. Cable Association.

COAL INDUSTRY-

SITUATION IN BRITAIN

RUGBY, 31 arch 26

In the House of Commons Mr Ramsay MacDonald raised the question of distress in the mining areas of South Wales.

Mr Neville Chamberlain, Minister for Health, replying, said that he found in South Wales confidence both among the miners, mine-owners,and managers that in time the situation wiH'lll recover. and the coal industry of South Wales would regain at any rate a large measure of its former prosperity. But,^/

while that might be true ol the indus-A. try as a whole, in certain particular districts there could be no such hope. One had to recognise that there might he a number of men, estimated at some 200.000, who were unlikely to find permanent employment in the mining industry again. That was the situation, which, as far as bo knew, in our time was unprecedented, and it was otto which might call for exceptional measures. The Government would not he deterred from taking such exceptional measures. If there were laige numbers of miners who could no ' . longer find employment, obviously it would he a great mistake to take measures the effect of which would b 0 still to tie them down to places where they could not earn their own livings. The problem resolved itself into one of transference from the place where'there was no work for them to places where there was work. One difficulty about the transference of those people was that they were miners. The Government was, however, taking steps to give them training in order to make it the more easy for them to embark upon other means of support. COMMUNISTS MOVE. LONDON, March 27. The “ Daily Telegraph ” states: lb * British Communists have been ordered from Moscow to cultivate workers’ sports movements as part of the build-ing-up of workers’ defence corps. It is also hoped this will aid in struggling against the activities of the bourgeois organisations among the children of the working classes, particularly against* Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Cubs. *

THE. SOVIET POLICY,

GENEVA, March 28. M. Litvinoff, the Soviet delegate’s last act before liis departure was ti protest against 51. Loudon’s comment that he (Loudon) “ hoped that tV Soviet representatives would next time bring to the Disarmament Commission a constructive, not a destructive policy.” STARS COLLIDE.

UNIQUE DISCOVERY.

CAPETOWN, March 27

The staff of the South African Observatory at Johannesburg record a remarkable observation.

Last week Mr Bernad Dawson, Hie astronomer of La Plata Observatory, in Argentina, South America, reported that the star Nova Pictoris was looking strange, and that he was unable properly to study it wity a small telescope. He therefore asßed the Johannesburg Observatory to make an examination of it through its 20V inch instrument. This was done by various members of the staff, when it was discovered that the star was split in two. Professor Spencer-Jones. the Astro-nomer-Royal at Capetown Observatory, states: Tt is wrong to say that the star is split in two. There are two stars now and there were two stars before, although we diet not know that. The star Nova Pictoris belongs to the class of stars which blaze up rapidly in the course of a few days from below naked-eye visibility to a very brilliant state. The state of the two stars now visible seems to show that they are due to a collision between two stars, or to a grazing impact of two stars.

Professor Spencer-Tones judges the distance between the two stars to he one fifth of a second of an arc. He thinks that it is possible that this is the first direct evidence of a collision or of a grazing impact of stars. He says that the origin of our solar system is the direct result of an identically similar occurrence. In the nebula consequent on the outburst in Nova Pictoris. he says, the constellation may condense into planets, and may form another solar system, where life may evolve.

THTEYES MEN ACT

PARIS. March 27. Taxi drivers in Paris are likely to be armed with revolvers in view of a crime epidemic. The Transport Federation lias urged this precaution on the Minister of the Interior and has asked him to make it legal. The Federation points out that the thieves are aware that the taximen carry money, and that they often are obliged to take passengers to lonely spots. SITCCESSFU L FXI’F.R TMENT. (Received this day at 9 a.m.) PARIS. March 27. Professor Brumpt reports the success of the utilisation of the humble minnow of ridding Corsica of the scourge of malaria. He declares minnows flourish the pools wherein other fish die and dispose greedly of all mosquito larvae.