INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4915, 14 December 1925, Page 4

INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

MAN WITH 250,000 EMPLOYEES

In the forest areas of the parish of Lyel, about •20 miles south-east of Bendigo, there is a man who leads an ideal’ existence, writes H.P.B. in the Melbourne Argus. He has 250,000 employees. Not one of them has ever known a day of enforced' idleness, there has never been a strike, and there has never been a stop-work meeting. There has never been an appeal to the Arbitration Court or any other tribunal. When their employer is prosperous they share his prosperity, and in lean years they attach no blame to him. The man’s name is Charles Jones, and the 250,000 employees are housed in accordance with the Bees Act, 1915. With the coming of the Act the old form of beehouse died out, and the wasteful and somewhat cruel method of breaking up the comb and straining the honey was abandoned. Public opinion has been against it for a long time. Wherever the Bees Act is proclaimed it is now an offence to use any other boxes than those prescribed. Bees must be housed under healthful and hygienic conditions, and the honey is extracted without destruction to the comb. Thus the bees are spared much labour and the killing which resulted under the old method is obviated. It is a very small house in the forest where Mr Jones leads the simple life. He pays his forest license, and wherever the blossom looks abundant sets his beehives down. Mr Jones obtained the chassis of a motor car, and with his own hands has built a body capable of carrying about 50 beehives. He has various hives and colonies about the forest. When the blossom becomes scarce in one area he loads the hives on to his lorry and travels to some portion where the bees have a better foraging ground. He never contemplates the possibility of his hives being stolen, and his confidence so far has not been misplaced. His desire is to obtain the necessaries of life. What is over he gives to some deserving individual or institution. During the war he found himself in possession of much more honey than he required. He loaded the balance on to his lorry and distributed it among the charities of Bendigo. Some time ago the rate collector. of the Shire of Strathfieldsaye made a demand for some rates for land in the vicinity. The property was owned by one Jones. Mr Jones wrote a polite note in reply. He said that there had been some mistake. He did not own any land in the vicinity, but he frequently used the roads. In the circumstances, therefore, he had pleasure in forwarding' the amount demanded. The shire officer does not say how the amount appeared in the rate book, or whether or not it was returned.

Later an officer of the shire went to Lyel to investigate a complaint in regard to a portion of road which was said to be ; in very bad order. The officer found the road in perfect order. It had recently been repaired. Inquiry elicited the fact that it had been repaired by Mr Jones. After his visits to his bees, he said, he had some time to spare each day and he devoted it to putting the road in order. He did not understand why people did not repair the roads in their spare time. The roads belonged to everyone, and it was everyone’s duty to keep them in order. He made no suggestion of requiring payment.