The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, June 1, 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 999, 1 June 1911, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, June 1, 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

An alteration is urgently needed in respect to the sorting of the night south mails into the private boxes at the local post office. At present, except on Saturday nights, this important mail is not sorted until the following morning and letters do not reach the private boxes until any time between 8.15 and 8.25 the following morning—which is too late to answer important correspondence in time to catch the Palmerston mail which closes at 8.30 a.m. We are grateful to our local postmaster and his staff for the expeditious manner in which they at all times discharge their duties and we are reminded also that while waiting for mails to be sorted that each official has but one pair of hands and sometimes extra delays are caused in this respect by larger mails. This by the way. If the mail we refer to were cleared up on its arrival each night it would lessen the rush that is bound to take place the following morning in sorting the overnight mail, and making up the 8.30 a.m. mail and preparing the office for 9 a.m. public business. We believe we are voicing the wishes of nearly every private box-holder in respect to this matter which has previously been brought under our notice, and hope our postmaster will place the matter before the proper authorities with the hope that the alteration will be acceded to.

Time and again we have drawn attention to the fact that there is a large area of land in this district eminently suited for closer settlement and which should be brought under the notice of the Government through the member for the district. As previously pointed out the member is prepared to bring this matter under the eye of the Government and to urge its claims, but until a petition is signed by the local people and presented to him, his hands are tied. As the question is one of vital importance to Foxton, we suggest that the Mayor convene a public meeting to discuss the question, or that a canvass for signatures to a petition be made and forwarded to the proper quarter.

Things are a bit mixed in respect to the observance of a holiday on King's Birthday (Saturday next). Foxton business people have decided to observe Monday in lieu of Saturday. All Government institutions and Banks will observe Saturday. After a good deal of controversy, Palmerston has decided lor Saturday, likewise Wellington and other big centres. The State School will not close on Monday. Excursion fares on the railways will not be obtainable after Saturday (except for the Otaki races on Monday). We have before us a circular from the Department of Labour in which it states that under the Public Holidays Act, the holidays Mondayised are Labour Day, and Dominion Day. If the Sovereign’s Birthday falls on a Sunday, it must be observed on a Monday. In the Shops and Offices Act, under Section 19, it will be seen that none of the holidays mentioned are compulsory for shops. All that is provided therein is that if any shopkeeper wishes to do so, he may observe his usual weekly half-holiday on the afternoon of any of the public holidays mentioned in the same week. In regard to the Factories Act under Section 35, all females and all boys under eighteen must be given the Sovereign’s Birthday and the other holidays mentioned in that Section. These holidays must be given in addition to the regular weekly half-holiday. In regard to Awards and industrial agreements, the provisions of any Awards or Industrial Agreements relating to the Sovereign's Birthday must of course be complied with by the, parties to same.

Mr W. Murdoch, of Shannon, and a labour candidate for the Otaki seat at the forthcoming general election, is anxious to come to grips with the leading lights of the Opposition Party. In a recent letter to our Levin contemporary, he says : —“ Messrs Massey, Herdman, Newman and Herries, M.P.’s, have been stumping the country in the Opposition interests. Each of these gentlemen in turn has had a tilt at the labour laws of New Zealand. Mr Massey, as Leader of the Opposition, has never yet told the

people of this country what is the policy ot his Party. Permit me to give him a start in framing a platform. If the Opposition party think our labour laws to be so pernicious why not make the repeal of these laws a plank in the Opposition platform ? It Mr Massey will do this the labour party will accept it as a gage of battle.”

A rkcknt visitor to Palmerston N. has been Mr R. C. Baldwin, Official Treasurer of the city of Manila, the chief town of the Philippines. Mr Baldwin, was broughtover to New Zealand by Mr H. Manson, General Agent of the New Zealand Government in Victoria, principally to make enquiries concerning the manipulation of New Zealand fibre, and I also as regards its grading and classification. As is well-known, i of the three staple export pro- , ducts of the Philippines, namely, sugar, tobacco and hemp, the last mentioned is by far the most im--1 portant, and the output last year ■ was the greatest in the history of the island. During the course of an interview with our Palmerston evening contemporary, Mr Baldwin said the whole of the group of islands are now making remarkable headway, both agriculturally and commercially. Referring to ■ the hemp industry he said: The 1 necessity for grading or classification of the hemp is easily understood when it is stated that the price varies from three to ten dollars, gold, per picul (r66lbs). : The contention of those engaged in the industry is that the trade ■ has got into the hands of too many middlemen, and that consequently 1 the producers do not obtain the prices they should do, or rather the proportion of the value to 1 which they are entitled. They believe that once they get a system introduced of grading and classification, similar to that ruling in New Zealand, that the present undesirable state of affairs will be greatly ameliorated. Mr Baldwin went on to say that the develop--1 rneut of Manila hemp is a most important question there. It is quite dissimilar from New Zealand fibre—is a different product altogether. You have probably never seen a banana tree. Well, it is difficult to distinguish a banana tree from our hemp plant. The fibre is in a cluster of thick ; stems, which grow to a considerable height. The out-growing leaves contain no fibre. All the work of preparation is manual, there being no machines yet invented which gave satisfactory ; results. We are handicapped by ; manual labour, but that labour is i very cheap, while you in New Zealand have to pay high prices for wages, and then you have unions and awards to contend with. Mr Baldwin said he had seen some of the New Zealand fibre at the Wellington exhibition. It is certainly a beautiful article. Some ' of ours is very white, but it care- ’ lessly prepared and the pulp not ' properly removed, the hemp bell comes a brown tint. There is very [ little rope-making done at Manila, the hemp being sent to America, ’ and nearly the whole of rope, ( cordage, etc., is imported. The very fine samples of hemp are used [ in the manufacture ot native cloth. ' I hope to acquire in my trip some ’ knowledge that I can turn to ac- ’ count in the all-important directions of classification and grading, ( and I may get a hint or two from seeing the machines that are now used in New Zealand. Subsequently Mr Seifert drove Mr Baldwin to his flax mill and explained to him the whole method of working the New Zealand fibre, which he says was most interesting to him. In the Manila hemp the fibre is all on one side ot the leaf, the other side being a pulpy substance varying in thickness from less than an inch, gradually diminishing. The method of manufacture or production of the fibre is tedious and rather antiquated. Each leaf is taken singly and by means of an incision the pulp and the fibre are pulled asunder, leaving a ribbon of fibre, the pulp having no commercial value, like the refuse of your flaxmills here. Then this ribbon of fibre is pulled across a serrated knife with an edge like a saw, to extract the vegetable matter from between the strands, the hanks afterwards being hung over lines to dry. Mr Baldwin explained that there is 98 per cent, of water in the Manila hemp plant, so that it requires a moist soil and climate for its soil. With only 2 per cent, of fibre there is naturally a rather limited result for a good deal of labour. But once we get a machine that will do for our raw material what your machines do in New Zealand for yours, greater prosperity than ever known will dawn upon the Philippines. But what is principally wanted is to instil into the native mind that labour is necessary to existence. They cannot realise that problem yet. The warm climate renders clothing almost unnecessary, and with their natural food in such profuse abundance, there is no incentive for sustained industry. Filipino labour, Mr Baldwin explained, is cheap but uncertain. In this way ; The Filipino can subsist on bananas and cocoanuts, both of which are procurable in abundance. He may promise to start work, the payment being a shirt or a pair of shoes. Yes, he may promise, and he may come, but he may not start work, Mr Baldwin concluded by stating that if the hemp industry can be placed on a better footing it will be a splendid thing for the producers, ■ and greatly enhance the general 1 prosperity of the Islands.