OUR AUCKLAND LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 16335, 30 January 1917, Page 3

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER

(Special to the ‘ Swh.’] January 24. THE NORTHERN TOUE. The parliamentary partv have been having a royal time of it in,'the Far North during the past week. Fine weather and brilliant hot sunshine ruled for most of the journey, but a good downpour, a. local shower, caught the motorists on a bit of clay road, just to give them some faint idea of winter conditions. It is a. popular idea, in Auckland that the South Island ha.-, metal roads like carriageways everywhere, and that it is only in the North there are clay roads, whereas the Gatlins district, for instance, could give any northern district points in mud roads in' winter. Anyhow, the North did itself proud. It gave itself up to holiday-making, and tiooped in with peaches, grapes! nectarines, apples, and all other fruits in season, and' as the dust was thick fruit and other thirstcoolers were very welcome. The visitors were told that the arid-locking land they had seen on the way had produced £20,000,000 worth of kauri gum. A kauri tiee was felled for their edification, wild jugs were chased by the Maoris and roasted m native ovens that the visitors rain hi I have roast pork, a log recovered from the I hwd (now Iving beneath the waters ! of Mhangaroa. Harbor) was cut up into I souvenirs to remind people that they had seer, the epot where the Hovel massr.cj... took place in 1809, banquets and speeches, I side trips ana fbliing’ excursions j added, and altogether it has been a red I letter week. One of the places visited ! was the Hikurangi swamp, 50,000 acres, i u'lurh i to he reclaimed at a cost of -75.000 ny the settlers. 1 he Dominion cement works at Whangarei and the famous hill containing millions of tons of cement, rock, the Whangarci pnw-arworks at Wai- 1 rua Falls, the freezing Works at Whangarci j Heads, and historic places at Russell were all visited. _ Incidentally, the North did Rot fail to impress on the. visitors that the country needed roads and railways and bridges, and presumably all the promises of the visitors will bear fruit when the Estimates are brought down next session. WAS IT MENTAL DEPRESSION? That deceased committed suicide by drowning while in a state of extreme mental depression due to ill-health'’ was the verdict returned by the coroner on I Peter Cornwell, who was found drowned in the harbor on Sunday morninv. Cornwell suffered from an 'incurable disease. Ho had undergone an operation to his tongue at Tanmarunui Hospital. In his pocket was tnis letter, addressed to the doctor at the Tanmarunui Hospital: Dear doctor,.—Just one line to let you the finish. By the time you receive this I will bo K.O. T wish it to be known that it was no fault of the hospital that I did not come back. No one could i have treated me better but the dying was I to i slow, so I thought I would'bring it j on a little quicker, and I think it. is the j best, as I would have been a great trouble 1 and a sickening case to look after. Thank- i ing vnu and all the hospital eta ft for their | kindness, I will sav good-bve.—(Signed! I Peter Cornwell,” 'An envelope in the i poiket bore, the words: “ Peter Cornwell I (rood-bye to all, all my own fault ; non*.? j to blame but. mv?elf.'’' Now. if a man suffering as Cornwell was j suffering, knowing that lie was bound to I die a lingering death and require mire- j nutting attention from others during his i wasting process, and knowing that he | would be “a sickening case" to look after, j makes up' Ifs mind to save cvervbodv I trouble r ,, K ; dio nniekiy, could he he said 1 to lie. mentally depressed? May lie not have been mentally exaitxl? Who amongst us is qualified to judge? SCORING HER CENTURY. Mrs Phillip Iving, of Waiul ui. who was | born in the reign of George, HI,, lias 1 reached the age of 101 years, and she Ims ! been a colonist for 77 years. She was j born in Tasmania on Jannarv 11. 1816. I and in 1840 arrived in the brig Falcon | at Russell before the Dominion had be- ! come a British colony. She has lived in the reign of six Sovereigns-—George Ifl.. George‘s TV.. William IV., Victoria. Edward VII., and George \.—and she has 40 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren, and several great-gren t-grandrhik! ren j while she is well represented at the front in the present great war. A. few months after arrival at Russell Miss Fiske. ns she then was, married Mr P. King, who arrived with his parents in 1814,"’when lb months old. hi 1845 Mr and Mrs King had to seek protection in Auckland, when Helm's war broke out. After Waikato hostilities ceased, co vears ago. th.-v went to_ live at Waiuku, 'and Mrs King resided there ever since. The. old lady is in possession of all her faculties, mid can talk bnghtlv and interestingly of affairs that we read about as the ancient history of New Zealand. “SHOP-LIFTING" CRAZE. One of those distressing ca.ses where an apparently respectable woman yields to temptation and steals some of the dainty goods displayed in drapers’ shops

was heard at the Auckland Police Court on Saturday. Mrs Ann Knott, aged 29, and fashionably attired, appeared to answer a charge of theft of a piece of silk and a piece of cloth, known to shoppers as “remnants,” valued at 12s lOd, the property of Rendells, Ltd. The usual story of just being about to go to a counter to pay for the pieces was told, but the circumstances were against the accused, and the Magistrate said he knew women seemed to enjoy the process of “pawing” over remnants, and that it was the custom to take things from the tables and pay for them at the counter, but it seemed a strange thing for accused to pass the assistant, go to the other side of the shop, and to say nothing about them until spoken to by Mr Eendell. He knew that thefts of this nature were committed by people who had no occasion to steal. There seemed to be some sort of a predatory instinct called forth in quite respectable women by the sight of articles of beauty to the female eye. Perhaps it was a part of feminine psychology. The only thing to do when offenders were caught was to fine heavily. Accused would bo fined £5. THAT DENTAL SCHOOL. Why should Otago have a Dental School when Auckland hasn't got one ? Another injustice (a Auckland ! The discussion at the University Senate, which has been considering grave and ponderous academic questions hero for the past week, has moved a. local paper to remark: “Only eight students attended Dunedin dentistry classes in 1914, and only six in 1915. There is a great shortage of qualified dentists in the Dominion, and the only school permitted to prepare men for the university degree in dental sorcery has signally failed to attract pupils. . . . The strongest supporter of specialisation can hardly maintain that the needs of New Zealand are met by the facilities now provided.” CARE OF SOLDIERS’ FARMS. It is fairly certain that the operation of the Military Service Act will result in quite a lot of farms being left without supervision or management. Of recent years there had been a big influx of young settlors taking up Crown and other lauds, and most of these men have gone to tiie front and left their farms to take rare of themselves. In the more settled areas, where properties have been brought to a state of productivity, this has not been so much the case hitherto, but the Act will result in a big difference. Ihe point is that where it is necessary for a man to sell out. and he is given a month or two to do it by the Military Sendee Board, what is to happen when he cannot find a buyer? There are buyers about who are mere land sharks. They offer extremely low values, trusting that soldier will, in desperation, come to their terms before long, but, generally speaking, the property "market is quiet, and there is little chance of selling f a mis at anything like their value. Moreover, men may not own their lands. They may have mortgages. Are they to sacrifice the result of years of toil, and abandon the properties to the mortgagees? That is "■hat will have to happen in a lot of cases the Government make some special provision. Ihe present provisions do not meet the case. Then, there are men previously rejected who have taken on furtlier responsibilities at a. time when they believed their rejection was permanent, and the war would not last as it has done.’ If they get through under the modified medical test, what is going to be done for them ? They could not "bo expected to anticipate a lowering of the standard tests, and some special provision seems necessary for them. Committees are being formed in country districts to look after , the farms of absent soldiers, but this is not. a very satisfactory method, and the call is for some practical scheme to assure the men that they are not to be called upon to sacrifice all they possess. *p i r>u^n f Tell a Lie.-—lnq uiring Lady ; “ How much milk does vour cow give a day?” Truthful Boy : “ ’Bout eight quarts, lady.” Inquiring Lady : “ And how much do you sell?”" Truthful Bov : “ Bout 12 quarts, lady.” Wanted Known Colds fly before “NAZOL.” Sore throats are soothed by this dependable remedy. 1/6 buys sixty doses.—[ Advt.'J