'FRISCO TOWN.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13160, 6 July 1908, Page 2

'FRISCO TOWN.

THROUGH A NEW ZEALANDEES' EYES.

Mr H. R. Dix, of Wellington, who was for many years connected with the Adams "Star" Bicycle Company, has returned from San Francisco, whore he went a year ago with the intention of settling. Mr Dix comes back (says the "Dominion," with very definite ideas on life in tho city inside tho Golden Gate.

"So you've eomo back."

"Yes," said Mr Dix, "I have lived too long in New Zealand to waste time in acquiring a new way to live. It was was the living conditions that brought us back—the absence of anything resembling decent home life." "But can't you make your own home life? What's the matter with petting a cottage in the suburbs and living as you like!-" .Mr Dix was asked.

"Everything's the matter with it." was tho reply. "Nobody does it, and if you wain such a thinj_ you havo to go to an undesirable suburb too far out —but you have to bo there to know how itnjioi-iblo it is to lead our sort of life. People lookiiu: for home life do not- take a house—that would tnke take them too far from town —xhe-y liire a Hat wherein to live the simple life. Hut even then they mostly go out to meals to eai'es and restaurant-:. When you go to a restaurant in 'Prism you don't merely have to pay for Uie meal. At an ordinary dollar cafe, tlie waiter expects a 10-eent tip: if you go to a better cafe you give a better tip or you get left. I wa> warned that this was so, but thought it an imposition, so passed out without appearing to notit-o the outstreichcd hand of the waiter. The next time I vent 10 that cafe 1 never m-eivod any attention at all—-they served people siuing at the same table as 1 was, but they would not take my order. So I bad to do in Rome a" the Romans do, while chafing under the imposition practised."

'•And 'Frisco itself—is it being built up noam !-" '•Yos," said Mr Pix, "they're making a start, but for some time ail or we dot there there was nothing much dnii._; in the building line, iiiul tliii:i;s were very bad. It appeared that the banks would not advance the money— nobndy seemed to have any confidence in tho place, but before we left there wa.s a turn for tbe. belter, and a good deal of building was in progress. But tho place is as bad as ever—'graft' everywhere. You can't do anything without greasing someone's palm. That sort oi thing is a cancer in the community, and its introduction into New Zealand should bo carefully guarded against. The working man is well paid tliere, but I doubt if he is better off than in New Zealand on account of the high cost of living. I kept a store there for a time, and did fairly well, but the hours—from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. —were hardly in accordance with our ideas of a fair thing unless you looked on store-keeping as a pleasant recreation. I have come to tho conclusion that there are worst places on tho Pacific coast than New Zealand."