OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 769, 12 September 1922, Page 3

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

SOON FORGOTTEN. (F rom Our Own Correspondent.) Auckland, September 2. The City Fathers, or the tramway aupthorities, have been graciously pleased to announce that badly crippled soldiers or sailors who have lost their eye-sight shall be privileged to have free tramway rides for 12 months, All things' considered the concession might have beer, a more liberal one. , The tramways are supposed to belong to the citizens of Auckland* and iif the citizens of Auckland had been asked to sanction free tram rides 'for the poor fellows in question for the term of thei natural lives instead of for 12 months only, I fancy they would have carried that proposal urn .limomsly. How did the crippled and blinded soldiers sustain) their terrible injuries? Surely no privilege in reason that it lies within the power of public bodies to bestow on these men to whom we are all so deeply indebted ought to be refused to them. Boys from the Back Blocks. The party of school hoys from the back-blocks up North who have recently been making holiday in Auckland, have had “the time of their lives.” They have seen all the sights Of the city* and have been feted and ffeasted ho their hearts’ content. And they have hid son ething more than “a good time.” Such experiences as they met with in the metropolis are calculated to improve their manners and expand their minds, and the experiments tried with these boys might well be repeated in the case of boys from other remote country places. But the suggestion that a party of New ’ Zealand school boys should be sent to England to visit the World's ■Fair, hear London, in 1924 is quite another matter? In this case l it is estimated that the expenses would run into £l5O per head. Thus, if ithe party consisted of 20 boys, the total expenditure would reach £3OOO. Where is the money to come from ? The Light Fantastic. When doctors differ who shall decides? One doctor recently declared that the jazz and some other dances were “suggestive.” Another doctor asserts emphatically that they are nothing of the kind. That was dance more decorously down there han they rdo in Auckland. At all events I have heard of one dance that is all the rage in this city.J I am told at the present moment, in which the lady throws her arms abound her partner’s neck* whUe her head reclines gracefully on his shoulder and he holds her in a tight embrace i don t know the name of this dance, not being a dancing man myself, but I fancy it| is called the bear bug” or something like that, and I know of a married lady, who, after witnessing it remarked that if she caught a girl of her’s dancing like that there would be trouble. But then, of course, middle-aged ladies have such old-fashioned notions. When they were girls it was customary for daughters to show some respect for parental authority. Today it isn’t.

Queenie Harwood. Queenie Harwood is the 19-year old . Auckland girl who has just got six months as an incorrigible. It appears she has been given several chances to turn over a new leaf and has turned them all down. As far back as 1920 she was convicted of being an idle and disorderly person,, and has recently been convicted of the same thing over again, She has been admitted to probation and broken it. The Salvation Army has tried to reform her andi failed), and at the Police Court Mr Poyniton told her he was afraid it was useless to give her any more chances. So he sent her to Mount Eden for six months. There she will doubtless meet and associate with many undesirables, and when she comes out she will probably be far more hardened than when she went in. Of course, it is difficult to deal with cases of ; this kind, and; under existing conditions the course adopted in this particular case by Mr .Poyntonl was perhaps the best one. And yet Queenie, I understand, is quite an intelligent girl, right I become “homes” ' t '' 'f ■* ,-;j less to w,, f 'jf cases as ® . day P e rhj® .!T 'V- ‘ right meH' .'”'7 ■’< to be hoJH‘ ’V.-' ." j .} \ Writes 39 “How aW Auckland® surplus are prerJl • quant,it i® many pfflj. pire Cira",- .' * v ‘ " , thing, f| knee, afjg \,s ? ,' s .V;. the doctors one case a healer who held forth Lit prublics actually professed to be able to cure ailments without seeing the patient. He gave “absent treatment” by sprinkling something out of a bottle on, the handkerchiefs of the faithful who carried the handkerchiefs home to those who were sick. I haven’t heard whether any remarkable cures followed. It’s all a matter of faith, as a Wellington, doctor —long defunct—used to say when he administered bread pills 'to his patients.” I) can assure my friend that we don’t want any imported healers in Auckland* having plenty of aur own. It is not long since somebody declared that he had counted between ,200 and 300 persons, in one day, entering the “consulting room” of a qua— l should say, healer —in this city.