Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9352, 22 January 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THERE is consternation in the workshops at Addington as the result of the charges made by the General Manager of Railways that the Government stroke is practised in the shops and that the men pay no regard to the authority of the foremen. The heads of departments at Addington are indignant at the charges and demand the name of the person who has dared to report unfavourably to the General Manager. Unfortunately for those who maintain that the Addington shops are a hive of industry where the men emulate the busy bee and

not the drone, comparisons can be made between the coat of work turned out there and that at other Government shops and for similar work by private firms. These odious Comparisons are moat unfavourable to the alleged energy of the Addington workers, and have led Mr Millar io state that unless matters improve all work other than repairs will have to be let out by contract to private firms. In the meantime there will be an official enquiry ;*a few culprits will be dismissed and in a few months things will drift back into the old easy going style which always characterises, and while human nature remains the same always will characterise, Government undertakings.

THE earnest reformer who advocates municipal and State industrial undertakin gs will tell us that such enterprises can be made to pay, but the fact remains that as soon as the nceessity of making a profit is removed both managers and men tend to relax their efforts and to take life as easily as possible. When to this general tendency is added the fact that politics are an element in the selection 'of men for Government employ and a powerful influence in keeping incompetents in their positions, it is evident that State enterprises are very severely handicapped. Already, we do not doubt, many political wires are being pulled in order to punish Mr Ronayne for his exposure of the state of affairs in the Railway Department, and it is merely a question of influence with Ministers and members whether Mr Ronayne or the men he accuses of neglecting their duty are to be the scapegoats. The present exposure is merely another argument for fcho control of the railways and all other business departments from politicians and putting them under commissioners, whose dnty it will be to put efficiency in the first place regardless of the political possibilities of their action.

THE improvement in the wool mar* ket should have a beneficial effect on the money market in the Dominion, The cable qews has reported good competition and improved prices in London, and our High Commissioner reports a halfpenny rise in the values of the class of wool which forms the bulk of our export. There should soon be visible the effects of the advance in brisker trade and less scarcity of cash. All will sincerely hope that the upward tendency of prices will be maintained.

The following is the latest addition to the Marton Telephone Exchange: School, Nga Tawa, Calico Line. The famous contralto, Miss Ada Orossley, will sing at Feilding on the 19th of next month. Hastings Borough Council has selected Mr H. W. Climie, 0.E., of Hawera, to report on a high pressure water supply for Hastings. Otago Trades Council has expressed sympathy with the British unemployed and decided to address an appeal to the Unions in Dunedin for donations. Mr L. T. Brown has given a special prize of 9s 6d for the best bouquet in connection with the Feildlng A. & P. School Gardens Competition. As a result of smoke-ho incident the Labour' Department is smmoning 23 Pakipaki felhnongers for striking as defined by section 3 of the 1908 Act.

The progress of Marton during the past twelve years is well illustrated by a photograph of Martou Junction Station in 1897, sent to ns by Mr G. W, Wilton, of Wellington. At that time the station buildings were of the small box type and very different from the fine offices which are now necessary. Mr P. O’Dea, who was formerly head of Sandcn School, is about to begin the practice of the law at Hawera. He intends to be a candidate for the Northern Ward at the election of members of Wanganui Education Board in July next.

A good deal of amusement was provided for some of the spectators who witnessed the Jubilee procession in Timaru recently in a modern illustration of the hare and the tortoise. A motor ’bus failed to negotiate one' 1 1 the rises in the main street, and it was passed by the steady old bullock team, amid the cheers and laughter of the goodnatured crowd.

At Palmerston on Wednesday a young man named Herbert Bergstrom was arrested on a charge of sheep stealing. Ic is alleged that on 6th inst. accused took 209 sheep to Messrs Gorton and Sons’ yards at Feild'ing, where they were sold, Bergstrom receiving £lO2 12s lOd, He was brought before the Court and remanded for eight days, bail not being asked for. The owner or owners of the sheep have not yet been discovered. The flock is a mixed one, comprising ewes, wethers and lambs.

The Hon. T. Mackenzie returned to Dunedin on Wednesday after nearly a week’s trip through Central Otago in company with Messrs T. E. Donne, manager of thp Tourist and Health Resorts Department, and H. J. Matthews, Chief Forester in the State Forestry Department. One of the objects of the visit was to see what could be done to arrest the tendency of a big area in the interior to revert into a wilderness. Mr Mackenzie found that there was no denying the fact, and considered that it presents a big problem. He states that whac ought to be done is to “rest” a number of the sheep runs, and that experiments in regrassing should be made with native grasses collected from other districts.

Now is the time to take a holiday, get out into the country, on the mountains and visit the sea shore, but do not forget to take a bottle of Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera* and Diarrhea Remedy along with you. It is almost certain to be needed and cannot be obtained on railroads or steamships. It is too much of a risk for anyone to leave home on a journey without it. For sale everywhere.

H.M. ship Pioneer now in Wellington Harbour has a few vacancies for seamen, stokers, and artisan ratings. Additional information is to,,' be found in our advertising columns, and full particulars may be obtained from any post office or direct from the ship. In the trial of Connolly at Westport, the evidence given yesterday was mainly a repetition of that„given at the other trials. The hearing was adjourned till Monday to get the evidence of the doctor who examined the murdered man, Bourke. Mr A, J. Reynolds, of Taratahi East, has just threshed a paddock of oats, yielding 84 bnshels per acre for twelve acres, and 78 bushels for seven acres. The Carterton Daily News says this is a Wairarapa record. Another rise in the cost of living in Wellington is to take place at the end of this month. This time it is the laundryman, who is going to charge the people who cannot do without doable collars 2d a-piece for washing audjroning. Following are the candidates for the Thames seat:—Messrs Lucas (Government and Labour), Taylor (Government and Prohibition), Rhodes (Government and Freehold), Haseldeu and Deeble (Opposition). The Wanganui Customs authorities yesterday seized a quantity of tea in packets consigned to a Chinese storekeeper there. The tea had previously been used and dried and was neatly done up in packets on which were printed “Registered in patent office. Hang Mee. Trade mark. Bast Kooloo tea, Canton, China.’’ 'The Kimntaka, which sailed from Wellintgon last week, took another large cargo of dairy produce, consisting of 52,075 boxes of butter and 19,719 crates of cheese, as against 44,252 boxes of butter and 18,722 crates of cheese, which were exported by the Paparoa, for the corresponding period of last season.

Cocksfoot cutting has commenced in several places in the neighbour/ hood of Akaroa, and generally in some of. the bays. It is reported that the seed is very fair, but will be no cleaner than was anticipated, says the Akaroa Mail. At s Little River cutting has commenced in a few places on the flat. Every train brings numbers of grass-seeders, so that there should be no dearth of men this season.

The Wellington Trades and Labour Council last night resolved—“ That this Council regrets to observe that the men employed at the Otira Tunnel have agreed to an exertion wage, which is opposed to the best principles of Trade Unionism; that a copy of the resolution be forwarded to the Government with the request that in future contracts a condition be inserted to the effect that men employed on such works receive proper remuneration for their services, and that no such thing as an exertion wage be permitted. A London mother who was giving evidence at an inquest on the death of\one of her twin children, seemed quite astonished when she was told it was the boy twin she had taken to the hospital, while she had been indulging in grief over the death of his sister. Pier admission did not argue much attention to either of the children, and further information elicited that the dead child bad apparently not been washed since its birth. The case was “left in the hands of the N.5.P.0.0. ” The legal adviser of the North Island Bands Association £says the proceedings of the Executive are per-, feotly valid and regular in all points raised, and that the bands interested and the Hastings Contest Committee are not in any way likely to be prejudiced by any action of the Executive. The point is that 1 the Executive has a perfect right to amend the band entries and regulations, which is all they have done. Mr Cohen considers the circular sent out is intended to prejudice the contest. A meeting of the Executive has been called at Palmerston for the 29th inst., when Mr Cohen feels that consideration should be given as to what action should be taken regarding the objecting band in view of the extraordinary action: Regarding Alfred Hill being withdrawn from the ballot paper forjudges, Mr Hill never applied for registration and stated that he was too ill to undertake the' position. Hence the withdrawal of his name, which had been sent in by Wellington Garrison. The following Wanganui candidates

have passed the junior national scholarship and free place examinations R. Harris, A. Taylor, Dorothy Porteous, J. O. Treadwell, Gracia Kine, W. L. Bradfield, W. H. Cocker, H. Larking, D. O. Hall, F. E. Carson, J. Deem, J. M. Gasgow, L. McKenzie, L. J. Maule, H. Sanson, W. S. Vernon, G. T. Cox, Freda Fairbrother, R. V. Scrimgeour, Lilia Pearce, Dorothea Lassen, A. J. Graham, O. G. Brewell, L. Clark, A. G. Thoms, Clarice Tingey, R. L. McNiven, L. A. Ghatwin, R. W. Weast, Corah Sartan, Monica Bain, G. F. Payne, Evelyn Porter, Hilda Bell, W. Knuobey. K: Doug-

las, J. D. Scarrow, H. Ayling, May Morgan, Mary Piggotti, Florence Parker, Amy Jenkins, N. B. Oadsby, Muriel Warner, Bessie Christie, Doris Watson, Ivy Bishop, Barbara Finlayson, and V. M. Honeyfield, Thus the Wairarapa Daily Times—

“Lock-outs in New Zealand are unknown, but strikes are chronic. We should have fewer strikes in the land if the Government did not try to settle them. In a country where a man commences his career as a strike-leader and completes it as a Cabinet Minister, there is every encouragement for strike agitators. If the miners’ strike be patched up this week, some other one will break out in another Quarter. New Zealand is, perhaps, the only country in the world where, owing to Government weakness, strikes are profitable. If a strike, like a thunderstorm, be allowed to run its natural course, it clears the air, and for years to come

there is a blessed immunity. Our Government is a sort of hatching establishment for every variety of labour trouble. We wonder who it was that introduced the mysterious phrase “pneumoconiosis’’ into the Workers Compensation Act of 1908, and whether the modern Guy Fawkes who was responsible for it, stuck it in as a piece of dynamite, which no member of the Ministry, nor any member of thefHouse, could possibly detect. Our Parliament likes words in Acts of Parliament, which it does not understand, and occasionally may bo unable to spell.

Existence may be summed up thus : Up till thirty—live. After thirtyliver. And then—just living.—R. Hiohens. Life need not be miserable after you are thirty years old. If your liver is sluggish and refuses to perform its functions, take a few doses of Chamberlain’s Tablets and you will live anew. For sale everywhere.