GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 155, 22 June 1908, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

A Chinese-manned steamship (The Manluy) is now lying at tlu; ]3lulV wharf. In answer to intjuirius made by a Press representative, the chief engineer (Mr. Farrer) said he had 11. Chinamen in his gang, chietly firemen and coal-trimmers. So long as they wore fairly well treated no body of men could be more industrious energetic, and anxious to do their duty. In the matter of sobriety they were unimpeachable, and, generally speaking, they were to be dependedupon for the utmost, regularity. lie thinks 10 Kuropeans might be got, to do the j work, but repudiates the idea of' the ratio being greater. The Chinese are paid at from £3 10s to .CI 15s per month. Kuropean labour would cost ;Cl 10s. In that case the srving of wages makes very little dill'erencc, but lie is emphatic in the assertion tlmt their reliability and general good faith is far in. advance of the others. Including deck hands, stewards, etc., there are 20 other Chinamen <m board, and it is well understood that they give equal satis- ! faction.

A" Chatham Islands correspondent says:—The usual big bags are being secured among the ducks this year. There are always plenty to be got. and with very little trouble. I was not aware till recently that the black swan has his close season along with th? rest

of the game. There has been some complaint from A T ew Zealand, I believe, about them being killed. Xow, we all know that such laws are good, and that in a populated place like New Zealand Ihev are necessary, too; but to apply

the Act to the shooting of black swans here is as big a farce as it would t>e to have a close season for rabbits m New Zealand. There are no rabbits here, but there arc swans, and plenty of them. On the great Whanga lagoon, which covers about 50,000 acres, there are. thousands of them. It is a simple fact, not exaggeration, to say that you can see, sometimes, a line of swans several deep, stretching right across the lake for fully six miles. If they are not killed they will soon starve out i everything else.

"Wanted—a smart youth." So runs the advertisement to be seen almost any day in the newspapers now when a merchant or any other business man wants a boy for ofiiee work. But "smart youth''." who were once wont to "rush" these billets, now stand off {savs the Masterton Times), and employers are complaining of a scarcity. The reason is not far to seek. The advent of District High Schools has prevented a good many boys from leaving school after passing the Sixth Standard, and the facilities given them for pursuing the higher branches of education have been eagerly availed of. To give an instance. Mr. \V. 11. Jackson, headmaster of the Masterton District High School, was asked by a prominent local business man iTie other day if there was any possibility of a smart; boy leaving school short I v who would be likely to accept :i po.-ition in liis ollice. Mr. Jackson went round the seventy-live scholars in jhe Sixth Standard, and put- the question. but there was not one favourable response. The parents evidently think they have better things in store for ihe»r boys.