Along, with" about 190 mem. bers of the Young Men's Canadian Club, your correspondent had the Junique opportunity of visiting the entire operating section of the Bell 'Telephone Ca, and seeing the various; units that go fo make up a local, long Jdistance and trans-oceanic telephone service. The trip took one complete afternoon, and the whole party' was divided up into small groups, so that we were able to obtain excellent explanations of the apparatus andi operating technique of the complex system.
The rip was prefaced by an address from the vice-president of the company, Mr. J. E, MacPherson. "During. ihis 40 years of service with the }Bell Telephone Company he has seen vast changes in efficiency, and a remarkable growth in the physical plant. He spoke of being particularly impressed by the fact that a telephon company was one of the best illustre. tions in business of a many-sided partnership, if it is properly administered. The subscribers must have the best possible service at the lowest possible cost; this cost must be ade-Quate to cover fair wages for the! employees, and a reasonable return on he outlay of the investor; and the Interests of the other three. groups must be watched and protected by the management, who constitute the fourth unit of the partnership.
'A visit to the automatic exchanges! showed us a huge array of highly technical electrical apparatus. The progress of a as it 1s dialled, was set forth on test equipment: must be admitted that it seemed far too complicated for a layman to begin to grasp. The sinking feature of this Dullding' was the almost complete elimination of the operators. Where would have seen a circle of girls, ch in front of a section of switch: re and switches through which messages find their way. Only when trouble cause a light to signal or a warning bell to ring need an operator come Into action.
Trans-Atlantic Talk of the best picture during the year, Mr. H. A. Banke, this year's winner, has not only had to struggle desperate: ly to get materials for ins paintings, such as brushes and colours but ancial stringency even drove him to take a job as a conerete-mixer, in order that he might draw the dole. He was engaged with a gang of wor men on his task at the very moment when the judges voted him the prize, which this year amounts to £300.
As a small boy, Mr. Banke always drew this sketches upside down on the paper. He began to study art at the age of eighteen, and a few years later he exhibited with the Royal Art Society. But he attracted the atten tion there of only a limited circle of people, and it was completely unexpected that he should win the much Jsought after Archibald Prize, in competition with many of the finest painters in Australia. Mr. Banke won this prize with a self-portrait,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.