CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 58, 28 August 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

ELECTRIC POWER ON FARMS. In the course of a few years there will | be but few farms in the older settled portions of the province of Ontario (writes a Canadian correspondent) that will not be in touch with the HydroElectric Power Commission or privatelyowned electric power transmission lines. The result will be that most of the manual labor that now drives both boys and girls away from the farm will be done by machinery. Already the pioneers of the new order are demonsrating the value and the varied uses of electricity on the farm. Mr. Fred Green, of Greenwich, uses part of the surplus waterpower from his mill to generate electricity to the extent of five horse-power; the dynamo suffices for fifty lights,, or will serve various other purposes, in.cluding operating a churn, with a capacity of 100 pounds of butter at a churning, or a cream separator with a capacity of 12001b per hour, or a milking machine that will milk six cows at a time. The cost of the entire electrical plant is about £!H). As to milking by machine, Mr. Green does not use the machine when the cows are low in milk, but when they are in full flow he finds great economy in that method, and the cows do just* as well" with the machine as with hand-milking. Recent experiments shows that plants and trees grow admirably by electric light, so that the farmer some of these days may turn his power at night into genial light for his orchard. The New Zealand farmer, it would seem, stands to gain more even than town dwellers from the Government's policy of harnessing the water power of the Dominion, comments the Invercargill News. In compliance with the Act passed last session at the instance of Sir Joseph Ward, a sum of £500,000 a, ?ear will be devoted to the purpose, and a start has been made with the Lake Coleridge scheme in Canterbury. Southland will in due course benefit, as it is intended to obtain hydro-electric power from one of the lakes, probably Monowai. It is quite on the cards that within five years our farmers will start even with their Canadian brothers.

LABOR ON THE RAND. The search after labor-saving devices has been forced on the Soutli African mine-owners by the fact that, in spite of a substantial growth, the supply of native labor has never ei|iialled the demand, a position which has been accelerated by the repatriation of the Chinese. Shortly before the outbreak of the Boer war,.in IkSDO, the natives employed on the gold mines numbered 07,000. In January, 1903, six months after peace had been [ declared, the number was 44,000. In January, 1904, it had risen to 68,000, and by January, 1005, to 83,000. In •January, 1010, i't reached 163,000, and in January, 1011, 185,000. The number' of natives employed on the gold mines at the end of April of this year was 194,328, i which is the largest number of colored laborers ever employed on the- Wit-, watersrand mines. As to the present requirements, Mr. H. H. Webb's report to the Consolidated Goldfield Company estimated that for 1911, "to make up the present shortage in the operating mines and fulfil the requirements of the expanding companies, amalgamations and new companies coming on, will call for probably another 70,000 natives at least, in addition to those already employed." Efforts arc being made to attract the native to the mines by improving the conditions under which he lives, both on and off shift. One important innovation has been the curtailment of nightwork. Thus, in the mines under the control of the Consolidated Goldfields Company, only 7.4 per cent, of the total colored laborers working under ground at the end of 1910, were employed on nightshift. Engineering says that this method of working the mine with one instead' of two shifts has been found to have many advantages, both from a hygienic and from an economic point of view. To mention only one thing, the condition of the air in the mines has much improved by the limitation of machine-drilling and blasting to once in 24 hours, and by the fact that there is an interval of about 14 hours between shifts, during which the smoke can clear away and the working cool down. Another step in the right direction, according to Mr. F. H. Hatch, has been the provision of shelters at the shaft-head, and the erection of covered ways between the shaft-head and the compound, for use in inclement weather. The "boys" conic up from their work hot, tired and dirty; the protection thus afforded them from the bitterly cold winds that blow through the winter months, and the warm shower-bath that is now insisted on in many mines will do much to mitigate the pneumonia scourge that used to be so prevalent among native miners on the Rand.

A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE. During the season of festivities in London many distinguished hosts and hostesses managed to overcome their natural reserve and endeavor to show kindness to oversea visitors without waiting to make their acquaintance in the very formal British way. The admirable unconventional ity of the aristocratic Britons was indicative of the growth of a praiseworthy Imperial sentiment, but it was not without its humorous features, which have been emphasised by a spci-ia] correspondent of the Sydney .Morning Herald. He states that many modest Australians, who were not staying at large, fashionable hotels, were sought out by hostesses whom they had never seen, and perhaps never heard of, and invited to gatherings of various kinds. The "Duchess of Wessex" would invite ''Mr. and Mrs. Jumbuck Robertson, of Swampy Flat," to a reception or to a luncheon party, and would be unquestionably pleased to welcome the visitors. Of course, amusim? situations would arise. Lady X requested the pleasure of the company at luncheon of Mrs. Y„ who had never heard of Lady X., but accepted the invitation and went. Mrs. Y. knew no one in the room, and Lady X. probably did not know all of them, but she got over her difficulty by having the names of the guests read out in pairs. Mrs. Y. and Colonel Z. were announced, they stepped forward and were introduced, and Colonel Z. took Mrs. Y. in to luncheon. At receptions naturally there was no such formalities. The unknown guests shook hands with the host and hostess—a ceremony performed probably under the critical gaze of a large gathering—and then the visitors were free to roam about the house, the host and hostess being occupied perhaps for two hours in shaking hands. The entertainment consisted largely in watching the otheT guests. "These receptions are a

series of interesting pageants," writes the correspondent, "and it is real goodwill and friendliness that has made them so often available to more strangers; but they are only pageants. There is nothing personal; there could not be." Still, the breaking of the very thick ice is as significant as it is welcome. '