Evening star., 1901-03-30

This blood is very valuable for fertilizer.
For a long time it went to waste in most
of the factories of New Zealand, when
couple of Americans came down and made
a contract for the product. The New Zea-
landers soon saw that they were getting
rich out of their blood money, and they
concluded to have the profit themselves, so
when the time came for the renewal of the
contract they refused, and now this and
the other by-products of the factory pay,
am told, about all of the expenses of its
operation and management.
Among the Factory Hands.
AS we walk through the works ask the
manager to give some idea of wages.
He replies that they range from $50 q day
upward, and that for day of eight hours.
The men come to the factory at am. and
they leave at 8 pm, taking an hour off for
dinner. They have in addition to this what
are called smokers. These are recesses of
ten minutes twice a day for a smoke. The
foreman fixes the time, which is usually at
1O o'clock in the morning and 3 in the af-
ternoon. These smoke recesses are COM
mon in all New Zealand factories.
AS far as can see the men seem con-
tented with their jobs. Many of them own
little cottages near the works, the average
Work1ngmans house being worth about
800. The manager tells us that If man
is ordinarily economical he can pay for his
nome in five years, and that most of the
men accumulate money. He tells US that
the factory insures the lives of it's en-
ployes upon such terms that If they are
Ra, Rliled will while on on duty their heirs will re-
cerVe from 81 500 to s., 500, according to the
amount of their policies.
Big Wooden Mill.
You people of the United States look upon
New Zealand as a half-savage country
You think it may perhaps have some good
farms and sheep ranches, but / venture YOU
nave never considered it land of great
factories. These people have woolen mills
which would be considered large in New
England. They make as fine cloths
as the best mills of Great Britain although
their mills have to be protected by the
tarlH IN order to live. At kaipoi near
Christ Church, there is a wooden factory
employing 600 hands. 1t is the largest
Woolen mill below the equator, and it
makes every variety of goods, from knit
underclothing to the finest of ladies' dress
goods. The mill takes the wool in bales of
4oO pounds each, just as it comes from the
packs of the sheep. 1t is sorted according
10 hneness, for the hair on sheep varies as
much as that on man, some being as fine
as the hair of a baby and some as coarse
as the wool of a negro
Next 1t is washed and secured by ma
chlnery, then dried and then dyed 1t is
next treated to bath of olive oil to soften
the hbre and then carded and combed and
twisted into ropes and retwisted by the
spinning jenny until each rope becomes a
thread so small that it will go through the
eye OF a needle. 1t is now wound upon
bobbins and then woven into cloth, just as
IN the best woolen mills all the world over
The machinery is the latest and the product
Of the first quality.
healthy, rosy checked and well dressed
They are yell bred and well edu-
Gated. Hundreds of them ride to and from
their work upon bicycles. They work eight
hours day, their wages being about 81 so
week, more or less
FRANK G. CARPENTER