Continuous rain and floods

Brighton Beach, near Dunedin, a favourite holiday resort. — Otago Witness, 29.1.1919.
Brighton Beach, near Dunedin, a favourite holiday resort. — Otago Witness, 29.1.1919.
The copious rains experienced very generally in Otago since Sunday have caused the Molyneux and Taieri Rivers to rise with startling suddenness, promising serious floods in many districts. 

Our correspondents in different parts all testify to the probability of the rain continuing.  At Arrowtown there has been continuous rain since Sunday morning, and the rivers are in high flood.  It is still raining.  At Cromwell rain set in throughout the district early on Sunday morning, and continued practically without interruption until after midday yesterday, the fall at intervals being very heavy.  The rivers, in consequence, are at a higher level now than anything known for many years, and a few remember seeing the Molyneux at such a high level.

Mr H. Turner, secretary of the New Golden Run Dredging Company (Ltd.), has received advice that the company’s valuable pipe-line spanning the Molyneux River at the upper end of the Island Block, was swept away yesterday morning during the flood in the river.  It appears that the pontoons formerly owned by the Golden Treasure Company, which had been purchased by Messrs Sheehy and Keppell, flaxmillers, and removed down to a beach close to the pipe-line for convenience of dismantling, broke away from their mooring, with the result that the centre pier of the bridge carrying the pipe-line was swept away, taking with it the long line of 13in pipes, together with the suspension bridge.  It is understood that the pontoons, after carrying away the pipe-line, sank a few chains further down the river, otherwise the bridges at Balclutha might have been in danger of being destroyed.

Equal pay for equal work

The discussion at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute on the subject of equal pay for equal work, with special reference to the employment of men and women in the teaching profession, indicated the existence of a considerable divergence of opinion on the part of the speakers on the question.  As in industrial pursuits, so also in the educational world, the point would seem to have been reached that in so far as a woman proves herself capable of performing the duties assigned to her a efficiently as a man would perform them and with as good results, she is legitimately entitled to receive remuneration equal to that which he would receive.  The fact remains, however, that a scale of salaries which fails to attract the most highly qualified men into the important work of education, appears to be sufficient to induce large numbers of women to embrace the teaching profession.  While women eagerly advocate "equal pay for equal work", they do not manifest any particular aversion from the acceptance of professional appointments at rates which men would refuse.  The reason for this is manifest.  A man has to take his domestic responsibilities, present and prospective, into consideration.  He must, as far as possible, look for employment carrying a wage or salary that will enable him to maintain a family.  The average woman who seeks an appointment does do with the determination to abandon it when she marries.  And while there is this difference between the outlook of the two sexes, the practical application of the principle of "equal pay for equal work", or, as Mrs Fawcett puts it, of "equal pay for equal value," however sound the principle may be, is in the nature of things plainly beset with difficulty. — ODT, 28.1.1919.

 

• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

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