GENERAL NEWS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2150, 5 August 1907, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS

From what a Dunedin Star representative was shown tho other day on a vessel at Dnnedin, it is to he in- ! ferrecl that tho steamship owners are oxpeoting not only a maintenance, 1 but nn increase, of the third-class immigration to Now Zealand. The Rippingham Grango, when last at Home, was extensively altered, and has now third-class (accommodation on an extensive and rather fine scale. Such an alteration in what is primarily a cargo ship is significant. “Wireless” on a merchantman is now making a first appearance in New Zealand waters, says a Dunedin paper. Tho vessel is the Rippingham Grange, which has been lying at the Victoria Wharf for a day or two. The captain states that on the voyage out ho spoke Capetown through 300 miles of fog, and also said “Good day” to tho Leouwin, although the steamer did not approach that point nearer than 450 miles. The installation which Houldor Bros, have fitted to this vessel is only an experimental one, but the meaning of the change is unmistakable.

The far-reaching influence of the San Francisco and Valparaiso earthquakes last year is illustrated ill the Survey Report , recently tabled ill tho House, by two photographic reproductions from tho Magnetic Observatory at Christchurch. The seismogisiph, which records all earl'll tremors however slight, consists of a long delicately balanced lever carrying at one end a small electric lamp, the movements of which are photographed on a revolving bromide ifilm. When the terrestrial crust is at rent the record is a horizontal line, which in eases of disturbance is broken'into vertical zigzags. The effect of the Valparaiso earthquake on 19tli August, 1906, is even more marked than that of the more famous shake which on 18th April reduced San Francisco to ruins. ' Tho Advisory Board of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation met in Wellington on July 31st, when amongst other matters the question of strikes was considered. The opinion was expressed that workers’ unions could, if ’they wished, prevent strikes, and that the responsibility for strikes should he thrown on the unions. The matter was referred to tlie Parliamentary Committee of the federation, with a suggestion that the Government should he asked to make provision similar to that contained in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1894, by which employers and unions were liable for a penalty not exceeding £SOO for aiding and abetting strikes or lockouts. The meeting expressed satisfaction that the Arbitration Court at Christchurch had recently stated that claims for enforcement of awards should he brought forward by inspectors instead sf unions.

A new field for meritorious energy is to be prospected in New Zealand soon by Miss Jessie Ackerman, F.R.G.S., who is due to arrive in New Zealand about the middle o.f next mouth. She is the world’s organising president of tlie Girls’ Realm Guild of Service and Good Fellowship, which was founded in 1900, and now has branches in various parts of the globe. According to the specification, tho object of tho association is “to show girls of the leisured classes in how many ways they can help, first, girls of their own class who, through loss of means, might have to support themselves without having received any proper training; and, secondly, to relieve the suffering and privations of tho deserving poor, to supply means for restoring health to the sick and sad, and to bring brightness to those whose lot it is to work almost without time for recreation.” Adelaide and Sydnev already have branches, and others will be formed in Australia when Miss Ackerman arrives thero.

A proposal to arrange for a system of lectures to gaol inmates has been made in Christchurch. The Lyttelton Times, has taken up tho question and has interviewed a number of people, amongst whom are Mr. H. IV. Bishop, S.M., and tlie Minister for Justice. Tho former was in entire favour of tho scheme, but was emphatically opposed to indiscriminate! lecturing to ijll prisoners. However, if there was classification,

lie was of opinion that popular lectures on subjects of ah educational and elevating nature would be an admirable thing. He thought the community had a duty towards prisoners: in-the direction of trying to reform as well as to punish. The Minister for Justice said: “We have so many prisons and so many prisoners, and the inmates of one particular gaol cannot be given special concessions. Any scheme for instruction or entertainment should be a universal one.” He was of opinion that lectures would be more beneficial in Industrial Schools. The time for assisting prisoners was when they were released. .

The Juggernaut of progress crushes out of existence many fondly-re-membered relics of the old-fashioned days in its relentless rush towards the cold, unsentimental goal of utilitarianism (says the Evening Post of .August Ist). To the ever-increasing legions of the lost must he added the hand-worker, the skilled craftsman who, starting as an apprentice,-, learnt to mould and fashion an article in all its stages, unaided by the artificial help of complicated machinery, j But this is an age of specialists and automatic appliances, and the oldtime artisan is fast giving place to the mechanical machine-minder. -lli*? tendency was referred to by a local boot manufacturer at tlie Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. “The •id bootmaker is vanishing, lie remarkleJ ha 1 f-regretfully, “and machinery is taking his place. Men stand at their machines nowadays, and do their own little bit day in and (lay out and tbov don’t know anything I oi st —if thev left their own machine and went to the one next to it, they I would bo lost, helplessly lost. In the I old davs the men did everything, I from the raw material to the finished article, blit they are. not taught 1 now.”

“Scientific authorities are looking to New Zealand to do her part in completing the magnetic survey of the globe now in progress by ext’eiuling observations throughout the various i outlying bland? of tlio calo. j;,’ r.ai**- . a passage in the annual report ol the Survey 'Department. “It is gratify- f ing to find that the Government is I favourably disposed to carrying out I the project, which is not alone of theoretical importance, but has a practical bearing on navigation. In connection with this statement an Evening Post reporter made enquiries at- the Marine Department, and was informed that a party of scientists was going down to the I Southern Islands of New Zealand by I the Hiueinoa on lier..next trip. Some I of the party will he landed on the I Auckland Islands, and the remainder I on Chatham Isle and the Campbell I gioup. They will have about a week I to carry out their work of magnetic I survey. The personal of the staff has not been published yet. but it is known that Dr. Coleridge Farr, late director of tlie magnetic observatory I at Christchurch, will be the leI and with him will go a number of I college professors, who are interested ,' in science. The party will leave in Oef-obWj