The fruit of the palms is not considered to yield first-class copra till the tree is seven years old, but a full-grown tree in its prime yields a large quantity. There are often as many as 150 nuts on one palm tree. The work of collecting the ‘‘flesh’’ of the nut (as it is called) is done by natives under white overseers and native foremen and the agility displayed by expert ‘‘nutters’’ is very remarkable. They practically walk up the trunk of the palm with their bare feet, steadying themselves with their hands clasped round the trunk above. With big knives carried in their belts, they cut off the clusters of nuts and then, coming down to the ground again, they crack open the nuts and cut the flesh out and put it in a sack. A good nutter can easily get seven bags of fresh copra a day. Indeed, that is what he is expected to do as an ordinary day’s work, any bags over seven being paid for as extras at the sum of 6 pence per bag. The women often accompany their husbands on the nutting gangs, and, indeed, are just as good workers as the men, though they do not do any climbing.
The Copra Company’s schooner is a vessel of 350 tons, with three masts, schooner-rigged, with an auxiliary engine of 300 horsepower.
Polite bus drivers a rare breed
‘‘As a visitor to your charming city, I should like before leaving to record my appreciation of the courtesy and civility shown the public by the officials of your tramway and bus services. These attributes are generally so conspicuous by their absence nowadays that I feel that the marked extent to which they are present in the above services is deserving of special mention.’’ The foregoing are the terms of a letter received by the editor from a North Island writer.
Neither are slow drivers
‘‘It is no use being wise after the accident,’’ remarked a well-known Dunedin motorist when speaking of the speed of the buses in Dunedin. He said that these buses were never intended to race at the speed they sometimes attained and he went on to relate an experience he had had one night last week. He was motoring from the Exhibition to the centre of the city and at Station St he realised that a motor ’bus was coming behind him. He was then travelling at about 10 miles per hour. The ’bus commenced to pass him, and the road in front being clear he thought he would try out the speed of the ’bus. He gradually lifted his speed from 10 to 15 to 25, and then the ’bus passed him. It should be added that the bus was carrying a load of school children.
Careful question of lubrication
With the increasing speed of automobile engines comes an increased need tor the most careful consideration of the question of lubrication and of lubricants. The conditions under which a high-speed internal combustion engine works are very trying to the lubricant. Indeed the efficiency of the modern petrol engine depends in a very great measure upon the possibility of efficient lubrication at high temperatures. The viscosity of the oil must be maintained and so also the flash point. An oil which thins appreciably at excessive heat looses a great deal of its efficiency as a lubricant between the adjacent surfaces of working parts.
— ODT, 29.3.1926
