NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 42, 19 February 1943, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY

Lights of Auckland

Now that street lighting is being restored, the view of Auckland from the Waitakeres is taking on again the fairy-like beauty of pre-war days, writes a resident of Titirangi. It seems a long time since one could look down at night from the heights of Titirangi or Waiatarua and see the city lights glittering like a million diamonds, he says. That was a view Auckland could boast over more famous cities. House lights are still obscured, but the regular patterns of the street .lamps are a cheerful reminder that coming events do not always cast shadows. Memories of Auckland The feeling with which Auckland is remembered by Americans who have moved on to an advanced Pacific base is shown in a letter and half a dozen snapshots received here from Lieutenant G. A. Mason, who has served with the United States Navy for 16 years. The "snaps" are of native shelters, with signboards bearing the names of "the locale of much of the famous Auckland hospitality that was so generously tendered to us 'crazy Americans.'" The sender says: "The places represented by these signs give us many a pang of nostalgia and longing to return." Large Auckland-Grown Peaches Two peaches were brought into the Star office recently which together weighed just under 21b. One was four inches in diameter and three inches and a half deep, and weighed over lib. The other was slightly smaller. It was stated that these were specimens of Hale's peach and were a good example of . the average size taken from the tree each season. They were grown in Halesown Road, Sandringham, in volcanic soil, and sprayed with lime sulphur. The tree, which is about eight years, old, has always produced a good crop of large fruit. Taxation Month These days there is nothing that looms larger in the personal budget of the salaried or wage-earning family man than the annual income .tax payment. It haunts his mind for "months. In most cases his way of life is geared down to its demands. And, irony of ironies, when the black day comes when he draws his hard-saved cash from the bank, or ; writes a cheque, he finds that this all-important payment, this hoard of - money, the fruit of only he and his family know what scraping and saving, what practising of petty economies, what self-denials, is passed ingloriously through a post office pay window labelled "Miscellaneous!" Added to which, a bored clerk, with the air of one dealing with an eccentric nuisance, rips off the receipted section in a flash and flicks it back with an indecipherable initial scrawled in careless haste against the date stamp.

Back to Work Gradually Recreation has mingled with education in many Wellington primary schools since they reopened a fortnight ago. A rota of visits to swimming baths has been arranged by the Wellington Education Board, while many schools have taken children to beaches where swimming instruction has been carried out, particularly among the younger pupils. £40,000 for Writing Paper Writing paper supplied by the National Patriotic Fund Board, through its expending agents, to the New Zealand forces, costs a considerable sum each year, states the February bulletin of the board's activities. For th£ troops in New Zealand and those stationed in the Pacific alone the cost is about £40,000. Recently the board received from New York a generous gif.t which will provide almost a three months' supply of writing paper for New Zealand forces. The paper is of excellent quality. Postal Tobacco Service The postal tobacco. service of the National Patriotic Fund Board has been in operation now for 12 months, and the use being made of the service by relatives and friends of men overseas is indicated by the fact that over 36,380 parcels have been packed and dispatched in fulfilment of orders. Many people have taken advantage of the facilities and of the greatly reduced prices ruling under the scheme for cigarettes and tobacco for the men for Christmas. Dreaming of Thee. • An Auckland girl has an enhanced opinion of N.Z.E.F. post office methods in the Middle East. She was bewildered by her sweetheart's sad cablegram announcing "No letters for a long time." Had she not written faithfully, week by week? Indeed she had! It was too bad the way her soldier boy's mail went astray. Someone should be taken to task. Then came a letter: "Darling, I- received quite a lot of your mail I all at once. It's a wonder I ever got it. Instead of writing my military number in front of my name . you had put your own telephone number on every letter!" Red Cross Spinner News about a Red Cross spinner which was sent to Africa by the New Zealand Red Cross Society, Auckland Centre, is contained in a letter from a correspondent, who says: "I have had many orders for it and there are people who have asked me to go with the orders and show them how to use it in Basutuland, 300 miles away, in Zululand, 200 miles away, and at Harding, inland in Natal. I have told them I will consider doing it if they give me an order for eight or more machines. That will mean £16 to the Red Cross from each, and a marvellous amount of wool spun."