AUCKLAND ROTARY CLUB.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 268, 12 November 1928, Page 8

AUCKLAND ROTARY CLUB.

TO-DAY'S MEETING.

COMMERCE TRAIN TOL it. The usual fortnightly lunch meeting of the Auckland Rotary Club, held to-day in the Le\fls Eady Concert Hall, was well attended, the president (Mr. Geo. W. Hutchison) in the chair. Amongst visitors present were Messrs. H. M. Ford (Glasgow) and T. R. Hetlierington (Thames). Messrs. C. M. Rich-White, A. C. Menzies, J. E. Astley and Dr. F. J. Gwynne were duly installed as members. A special return welcome was accorded Rotarian J. W. Hardley, who mentioned that in Canada he had attended a Rotarian dinner at Toronto, where 360 members were present. The president mentioned that the money promised by the Rotary Club towards the Hunua hut, viz., £800, had been paid over, and memliers would be associated in the official opening of the hut on December 1.

The speaker of the day was Mr. H. T. Merritt (president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, who gave an account of the tour recently taken by the Commerce Train. The trip, according to Mr. Merritt, was a complete success. The organisation of the Railway Department throughout was a model oi efficiency, and the hospitality received from country residents was unbounded. The chief-lesson of the our, he thought, was the sight of hundreds of thousands of acres of undeveloped territory which represented tremendous potential wealth. Another feature was the evidence of efficiency on the part of secondary industries which they inspected. In spite of all the reports which had been circulated concerning the hard circumstances of the man on the land, he had been greatly impressed by the obvious prosperity of the settlers he had met. He did not believe the proportion of failures was any greater in farming than in city enterprises.