IN THE NORTH-WEST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2456, 22 March 1909, Page 2

IN THE NORTH-WEST.

MINING CITIES IN AMERICA.

SEEN THROUGH A NEW ZEALANDER'S EYES. .

- Mrs. Gi •ace Neil/ who lias returned to Christchurch, after a visit to the “wild and woolly west” of the United States,: has brought back with her some very interesting impressions of what she saw there, says the “'Lyttelton Times.” She saw great scenery, great cultivations, the result of great human industry, • and, above all, great inventions. She spent most of her time in the State of Montana, but passed through California on her.way. In.the Californian town of Pasadena she was delighted with the sight of vast -numbers of orange trees. They were laden with oranges at the time, and were yellow with the bright, golden fruit. Even in the trains children went amongst the passengers- - offering large branches, with delicious fruit hanging to them, for Id a branch. The town is a delightful one in many respects. Its ■architecture is quaint and picturesque. The houses follow largely the “craftsman” style propounded by GustavStrlckley in his own magazine, the effect being to give the town a distinct character and j>ersonality, very pleasing to the eye. dn Montana Mrs. Neil had. opportunities for seeing the vast mining operations that are being carried on at Butte, Anaconda, and Helena. Toil in the copper mines goes on night and day, : on Sundays, holidays, and all. days of the week, year in and year out, without ceasing. At nearly every hour of the day men may be seen coming out of the mines or going into them. The lack" of Sunday observance seems to be quite general. The saloons, tobacconists’ shops and ' other business places transact their affairs on Sundays in-the same way as on week-days. There is no prohibition there, and, as far as present (appearances go, Montana will bo the last State in the world to • “go dry.” The mines represent many nationalities. Thero are Poles, Slavs, Montenegrins, Italians, and members of other European nations. The district is too far inland for the Japanese, who lilce to keep to the sea-coast. Wages are good, but the cost of living, especially in rent, is high. The people seem to need more luxuries there than in warmer climates. The cold is sometimes intense. There are frost and snow for eight months of the year, >and the thermometer gets very disagreeably low. In some of the mines, efforts are made to introduce healthy conditions of work: The men are supplied with “change rooms,” which, are provided with steam pijxes. Each man lias a locker, and as he comes out of the mine he leaves his damp clothes in the. room and changes into warm ones. By the. time he comes back the damp clothes are dr 3’, and ready for use again. Montana- shares one problem with New Zealand and Australia. The domestic help difficulty is as great there as it is here. Those who need assistance in their homes are at their wit’s ends. The genius of the American nation, however, is asserting-itself inthis direction in just the same way as it has asserted itself. in other directions when it has been confronted with national difficulties. Many inventions are brought forward to save labor in the house and to make the domestic help dispensible. Electric appliances are installed in all well-equipped homes. Nearly every house that can claim to be supplied* with “modern conveniences,” for instance, has electric irons and electric washing machines. Hot air is supplied from a central plant through mains, and is turned on by means of a register in the same way as gas is turned on to houses in Christchurch. There are shoe-shining establishments, where boots are cleaned by electricity. The automatic telephone is in high demand. It lias abolished the telephone-girl. A subscriber can connect direct with the house of a friend without going through the formality, and often tho delay and annoyance, of ringing up the “’change.” The only occasion when an intermediary is needed when there is a hitch and things are not working smoothly. Then “No. 93, Trouble,” is called up. The nature of the hitch is explained and “Trouble” sends a man along to put things right again. Tho “Information Bureau” attached to the system takes a high rank amongst America’s modern devices. Is the Subscriber interested in the result of a dig football match, an athletic phampmnship, a horse race, or a prosidental election, 'or does he wish to know the time of arrival or departure of a train P He rings up the bureau, and the information, if it is in the bo unis cf ] reasonableness; 15 supplied at once: The Ci9Liestic Help ’difficulty is driving many families in America to live in apartment houses. Suites of rooms am hired and the families live there, surrounded by all the conveniences that human- ingenuity -can devise. In one apartment house in Butte there are fifty, to sixty families, holding suites ranging from two rooms to five or six.. Helps demand good wages, and have no trouble ingetting them. In one instance, in Pasadena, girls do not come forward when as much as £8 or £lO a month was oifered them. /. . ~ , Mrs. Neil’s interviewer . ..said that the ‘ ‘lnformation Bureau” must be a great boon to the newspaper' offices, which would be relieved from scores of telephone calls, and the remark brought to her mind a story of the newspapers published in Montana. Before the American fleet came to New she wrote to the editor of the “Butte Miner,” stating that she had pictures of New Zealand, and offering to give them to him, together with some information about the country, for publication when the fleet reached these shores. The editor did not reply, but when the ‘miner announced that the fleet had come to this 1 Dominion, it published its own pictures of New Zealand. They represented a few small reed houses erected on poles several feet from the ground. It was stated that these were the houses of New Zealand fishermen. Mrs. Neil was overwhelmed with the absurdity of this stupendous attempt to portray the cities of New Zealand. She assumes that the editor’s geographical’education has been neglected, and that ho made the simple error of mistaking New Zealand for New Guinea or some other •savage country. She received several other shocks while she was m America. In Mr. Upton Sinclair’s recent historical work, for instance, she reads that New Zealand has been founded by convict colonists, which accounted for the democratic resistance to tyranny in New Zealand. She wrote to the author uointing out his mistake, and received a courteous letter from his secretary. A short time afterwards; however, she saw that Mi”. Goldwin-Smith had made the same extraordinary statement m the “Cosmopolitan.” Mrs. Neil saw vsome. enchanting scenes in the north-west, but she says-that sue saw 1 ’nothing so charming and loveable skaas -v-er.v