LOOKING BACKWARD!

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9674, 13 December 1909, Page 5

LOOKING BACKWARD!

AFTER TwENTY-FIVE YEARSA.D., 1935.

THE MASTERTON OF A GENERATION AGO. A MARVELLOUS ADVANCE. FROM SLUGGARD TOWN 10 VIRILE <JITY. (No. 2. —Contributed.) The Oldest Inhabitant proved to be a hk'hly intellectual personage possed of remarkable vitality, and he expressed a keen desire to enlighten me fallv on all matters pertaining to the progress of the t;wn during the period of my absence. We at once commenced a lour of the city. "You will ( nbtless be most interested in lea - ing how this busy place, possessing quite a number of manufactories, dsrives itb motive power," said my guide. "You will probably have noticed how free frorr smoke the atmosphere is, and would tberer'ore possibly riot have guessed how multifarious our industries are. It will therefore interest you to know that electricity provides practically the whole of the motive power of the place. Almost all the large factories use it, and those that do not employ instead high power gas engines, and so Masterton is not a smoky city. Where do we generate our electric power? Ah, I presumed you would ask that —come with me," and at this stage my guide jumped aooard an electric tramcar which took us a good distance to the westward of the town, in the direction of the "Upper Plain," as we called it in my time. We then alighted, and engaged a vehicle which took us past Masterton's new waterworks, comprising a splendid reservoir situated at a higher level than the old one, and with a tenfold caDacity. After an invigorating drive of about half an h jur we turned in towards the Waingawa river. An increasingly loud humming like the rtoi&e of a waterfall caused me to ask the origin of it. "That, my friend, is the source ol Masterton'a electrical power," re- ! plied the Oldest inhabitant with a smile. And truly it was. We soon came within sight of something which caused me infinite surprise. It was a veritable Niagara Fall, and had heen caused by the dammjng up of the Waingawa river at a spot where the river valley was narrowest. A mighty concrete wall had been structed right across the valley, and over this tumbled the waters of the river, furnishing power houses on the banks on either side, with amply sufficient electrical energy to supply the power and lighting of the city as it then stood.

"This great work," said my guide, "is a source of considerable |iride to the district. As you may probably remember, Masterton twenty-five yean ago was simply thirsting for industries. It was surrounded by large estates, and as closer settle ment seemed a very long way off, and the town had reached perhaps bey md the proper level of a rural market town, the people decided that industries must be started. The question of motive power was of course, the chief obstacle to manufacturing on m large scale. There were no coal mines close to Masterton then, and it suddenly occurred to some person or other that it might be possible to harness one of the local rivers. Now this was not a new proposal even then, but no one bad ever thought it worth while to have the matter properly investigated. ,But a very simple circumstance altered things. A patriotic gentleman with some influence, and also possessed of some capital, was one day viewing the working of the. water-rams of the now old Lansdowne water supply. It struck him that if engineering skill could so cheaply and so effectively accomplish the reticulation with water of an awkwardly situated place like Lansdowne, it might be. worth while to have the possibilities of the various rivers looked into in respect of supplying motive power. By this gentleman's forethought and personal application to a great object, it was ascsrtained from an high engineering authority chat the.Waingawa river valley lent itself admirably in places to water, consgtv.a*. tion, and that i 1: was possible for Masterton to have s fixtefcsiV'f Snd valuable electrical works. Hand in hand with the promoting ol this important scheme came the development of a big cement industry at Mauriceviile. You may remember that in about 1907 an agitation was suggested in favour of developing the coal and cement deposits at Mauriceviile. Well, the coai was subordinated to the cement, when it was found that the masonry work in connection with the water c naervation scheme would require many thousand pounds worth of cement. Besides, there were other similar schemes projected in which cement would cunstitute one of the chief causes of expense, and it was found that it would be far cheaper to develop the adjacent cement bearing country than to purchase elsewhere the large quantity required. As soon as it was ascertained that electrical motive power could be obtained at a reasonable outlay the town soon 'same into prominence as a propable inland industrial centre, and capital was freely forthcoming with which to inaugurate manufacturing concerns. We are even now only at the commencement of ®ur era of iidustrv. We have devjted ourselves hitherto to converting primary products into usable goods, but I prophesy a rapid extension into higher grade manufacture. Woollen mills, boot factories, canning works, and Hiich like industries have served to lift the town iiito a very stable and self-reliant position, but the spirit of progress is causing us to desire more variety in thin direction." I completed a most interesting inspection of a truly monumental .work—a work which as my guide had indicated had given Masterton a tremendous impetus along the ioad of progress. We returned tD the city, and 1 was pleased to observe how smiling was the landscape en route. Pretty villas were scattered every where, with the loveliest gardens imaginable on all sides. This same country was farm areas when I went away. In the city my guide showed me

I round the various manufacturing usI tablishments. I was gratified at the p-to-date character of them all, and I found the conditions of employees to be most enviable compared with that of operatives elsewhere. My guide discoursed with pride on the smooth-running of the factories. "We have, we believe, discovered the only certain 'strike cure,'" he said. "Oh," I remarked, "it would be a very valuable preparation in America. I should like to know its constituents." | "Wellrepiled the Oldest Inhabitant, "you can have the recipe. It lis simply this--profir-sharing! We have in this city carried the system of profit-sharing to its utmost limits, and it is on such a basis that our factories are vitrtually co-operative concerns. Such being the case, there is little oi no occasion for combination on the part of employees. Every unit in every establishment receives a proportion of the profits in a ratio governed by his length of service, and proved working capacity. It is not a mere nominal share, either, and there ia consequently every inducement for employees socalled to put forth their best endeavours. It is amazing what splendid results have thus been obtained. It was found, as you may know, that the labour union system, as a national check on contemporary evils of employment, was a ghastly failure. Strikes occurred even in State-owned j concerns, and also the worth of the average artisan dropped many per cent. The minimum wage idea became a perfect terror in the long run, as there seemed to be no finality to the demands of militant unions. When the svstem finally broke down —about 1915—and legislation was passed dealing only with conditions of employrnet outside of wages, the svstem of profit-sharing was introduced in our local establishments, and it is now regarded as the salvation of the genuine worker.