AS OTHERS SEE US.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 8, 11 January 1927, Page 9

AS OTHERS SEE US.

i ~~ "* A NEWCOMER'S IMPRESSIONS. • ! THE CITY ASD ITS PEOPLE. | LADIES JUST THE SAME. ißy G.G. I i How does the City of Auckland and its i people strike the newcomer from the Old J Country. The question is one which | the native-born New Ze-alander. resident j in the town or sam_..here else in the | province, must have considerably pon- ! dered over. i Well, as a Britisher just out. let me I say at once that it largely depends on J the circumstances under he arrives, ! the weight of his purse, the -lumber of | his friends—that is people who know j him and are j welco: -.1 his mental and psychological calibre. The man who comes here as a Rockefeller. or with banners flying as a scion ot nobility or Royalty. cannot possibly see the "Queen City" and its good folk in the light of the immigrant. The average Britisher will doubtless see it as I saw it. as a city in a country which was to be "a home away from home. ' But there again his first impressions will be governed by the state of the weather. If it be a real sunny day, then he sees Auckland through roseate glasss, and his mind' naturally reacts to it, and he beams. Mentally he compares the sun-bathed town with, sav. Manchester. Bradford, or Cardiff on "a wet day, and exults the more. "This is the life.' he thinks, and all in the city is beautiful. If he sees it as I firs: saw it. overcast with leaden skies, and rain pelting down as though it never intended to stop, then he begins to wonder. Where is the promised land of perpetual sunshine? he asks himself, and again mentally he compares it with the country or town he knows best, and in many cases doubtless to Auckland's detriment. First Impressions. My first impression, therefore, was not got under the best of conditions, but nevertheless 1 must say I was pleased, with the city, its lay out, and its people. It struck me immediately as new and growing, and not old and" set like London, and the big cities and towns in Britain. The open-air arcading of the fronts of the shops was something entirely new and a pleasing, useful fea° ture. but the crowding of advertisements on every possible place was distressing. It prevented one from picking out from a distance one shop from another, and did not improve the aesthetics of the principal streets. The cleanness of the whole place was a strong impression and undoubtedly helped to make one favourably compare it with the big towns at home. But the spacious planning adopted in the laying out of streets was perhaps the factor that helped most towards this view, for it was so entirely different from those at Home. Here, every house is a villa or a bungalow standing in its own grounds, small in some cases, but still its own, whereas in the big towns in England, for instance, they are more often than not crowded together without apparent iivision in one long monotonous row or street. Red brick boxes with lids is how, I j relieve, John Ruskin once described these | vorking-class houses of England, and his 1 inscription of them was in the main correct. In the great towns of the Midands—in Bradford, to give one example —they are even worse than this. Thev ire invariably built of grey stone without attempt at aesthetic ends, and in some cases back to back, so that tile people living in them have not even the jenefit of a back street, as in the nortn;ast towns, to give air and space. Ruskin would probably exult in the Majority of the dwellings in Auckland md its suburbs, for they are, seen in the nass, spacious and beautiful. One »-ould have to get well into the suburbs >f the great cities at Home to see a somewhat similar state of things, where louses nestle amid trees and beautiful lowers. It is in respect of fine buildings and jerhaps, in magnificent shops that Auckand falls short of the old towns. But hat can be remedied in time, and doubtess will be. And then, indeed, will the rood people of Auckland be able to look ®. ven mor e pride on their gracious >eautiful city. What of the People? The people are very like those at Home. They wear much the sam» ?lotnes, think much the same things have much the same kindliness of disposition and quiet -ways, and thev speak the same tongue. It is what is expected. But for the fact that soft hats are ilmost universal both at work and at j play, and that occasionally a man wears ' i straw hat, there is no particular dress j listinction among the men. One misses :he bowler, but occasionally gets quite a shock by the sight of one. " And, like the English bowler, the cap, that favourite j ieadgear of so many Britishers, is non- I jxistent on the heads of any person Dther than a schoolboy. In their love of dainty things and love }f shopping the womenfolk of Auckland ire like their sisters 13,000 miles awav. In graciousness of mind and goodness of heart they perhaps more nearly approach to the good folk of the English northern counties. A shopping day in Auckland is verv ike one in any town in England on a sunny summer's day. It is only on such occasions that the average woman or 2irl over there dare chance the elements n the dainty frocks and hata which j apparently are the everyday wear here. I rhen she sallies forth in all the glories sf millinery and gowning, just as you do here, and believe me she looks just as j sweet. ; A New Zealand girl could walk in | Regent Street. St. Mary's Street, Cardiff, I jr Grainger Street, Xewcastle. clad as | she is to-day, and bear proudly her head, | knowing that she is just right—if it j ivere a real summer day. But if it were j lot. then she would have to change her j zarb, if not her ideas. Climate can make j fashions as well as ruin them. | === i