AUCKLAND NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 November 1920, Page 3

AUCKLAND NOTES.

LABOUR DAY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, October 29. Queen Street was thronged with holi-day-makers and sight-seers to witness the usual procession on the morning of Labour Day, and the usual procession exhibited tire usual features —a brass band led the way, and then followed a long line of vans, carts, lorries, drays etc. ,One of the vans bore the legend in gigantic printed capitals : “Capitalism is starvation.” 1 wonder what “the. workers” would say if the capitalists got up a street procession of miscellaneous vehicles and labelled one of them : “Labour wants industrial ciiaos” 'l STATE HOUSEKEEPERS. It is satisfactory to find the Minister for Public Health taking so keen an interest in the domestic help problem. His idea of a State organised staff of trained domestic helps whose services shall be available for all and sundry is not half a bad one. “1 would give them,” says Mr. Parr, ”a scientific training, good salaries, regular hours, uniforms, and the same social status as nurses.” Excellent! The status of the domestic help undoubtedly needs raising. The calling does not attract as a rule women or girls of refinement and education, and I am afraid, also, that many employers are too exacting. The shop and the office and also the factory keep regular hours, and when the girls they employ, have worked a certain number of hours they are free to go home. In the ordinary household there are no regur»*hours, and the domestic aid is expected to work, sometimes, until late in«the evening. In fact, owing to lack of method and management, the labour in some homos is almost endless, and if domestic duties fail to appeal to girls nowadays it is not much to be. wondered at .

GO AHEAD AUCKLAND. Ten years ago according to the official returns, the population of-greater Auckland was 97,000. By 1916 it had grown (according to the census taken in that year), to 134,000—an increase of 37.000. In February next another census will be taken when it is predicted, the population of this city will be found to be not less than 140.000. No other centre in New Zealand shows such remarkable' development as this. The future of Auckland is assured. Some day it w'll unquestionably be another Sydney. At the present time it resembles Sydney more closely than either of the other great centres. Dunedin has made but comparatively slow progress for years past. Christchurch has something of the sleepiness of an English provincial town, Wellington is more alive, but the most go-ahead of all four centres is undoubtedly Auckland.

HUN EFFORTS TO RECAPTURE TRADE. Business firms in Auckland as in Wellington and elsewhere are being inundated with letters, catalogues, leaflets and circulars soliciting orders. These German traders are prepared to

supply all kinds of goods, most of their letters begging that the offers contained may receive careful consideration, the writers expressing the opinion that a resumption of trade would ‘‘prove of mutual benefit.” One Berlin hardware house offers to supply lines at 25 per cent, under current American rates. Of course these letters from Hunland have to pass our military censor. But the fact that they are passed by him does not at all imply that any business can result from such communications. As a matter of fact the Order-in-Coun-cil barring the importation of goods from any of our late enemy countries has never’ been revoked, and, so far as I can learn, the prospect of its ever being revoked is decidedly remote. A few lines, of comparative unimportance are still coming to this country, it is true. But these can only be imported by the special permission of the Customs’ authorities. A SPECIMEN'. In a Queen Street shop-window may be seen a small square-shaped block of coal, weighing, perhaps, a couple of ounces. It is neatly mounted on a little varnished wooden stand, and is enclosed within a double row of tiny

wooden posts which are connected by a illiputian rope. A printed placard reads “Shewn by "the kind pcimission of the New Zealand Government,” and a notice-board at the side of the stand bears the intimation : “visitors are requested not to touch.” The whole thing is only about four inches by three, and is a miniature reproduction of an ordinary sort of museum exhibit. Whether the day will ever dawn when i»% j wjpu jwgv-iy iirfffrlKMjWUßggßßgßttM* i > n rfd JIIIiWWWI

coal will become “a back number” in this country I don’t know. But hydroelectric energy is certainly destined to play a tremendously important part in connection with the running of our industries and as a source of heat, power and light in our home. And whether coal is superseded or not the shareholders of the various Gas Com-panies-of the Dominion will probably have to content themselves with considerably smaller dividends than they are now getting.

HOW’S IT DONE? At a recent meeting of the Anglican Synod in Auckland a speaker said he had charge for a number of years of a very scattered district in which were eight, places of worship. His stipend, he said, was £lB5 a year, out of which he paid -house-rent and’ kept three horses for use in his work which necessitated long and arduous riding.' Fox* the past twenty-five years his stipend had averaged the amount already stated. Think of that —a man of education, culture, refinement, a member of a learned profession, receiving something over £3 10s a week, and which, taking the present purchasing-power of the sovereign into consideration, is really and actually equivalent to about £2 a week! Why, a “worker” wouhnturn up his nose at the idea of it! But alas! for the educated “worker,” the man who toils with his brains instead of with his hands, there are. no “unions,” no “agitators,” and there is ptecious little sympathy!

WHY LET HIM OFF? At the Police Court, a day or two ago, a young man answering to the name of Bertie John Christian was charged with assaulting a little boy. The assault took place in a public convenience, and the police evidence was to the effect that when the child who was ill-treated escaped from the clutches of the accused he was crying. A plea of guilty was entered, the blame being ascribed to “drink.” The Magistrate said the offence might have had very serious consequerices, but as liquor seemed to have been responsible he would give accused a chance. He would merely record a conviction and order him to come up for sentence when called upon. The assault appears to have been a cowardly and disgraceful one, and it seems to nie that the Bench showed an altogether mistaken leniency in virtually dismissing -the case. Drunkenness is seldom accepted as an excuse for brutal misconduct. Why should it have been accepted in this case?