AUCKLAND LETTER

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1922, Page 3

AUCKLAND LETTER

— ■ “ ‘V’ AUCKLAND.” £ (From Our Own Correspondent.) n ’ , AUCKLAND, March 10. 1 Mr. Peter Virtue, whose death occurred in the early morning of Tuesday, the 7th inst., has left a gap in 0 the ranks of Auckland business-men that will not readily be filled. His a amusing advertisements in the Auckj land daily papers and in many of the provinical papers were known to practically all North Island readers. He was a thorough believer in the efficacy of advertising, and like most success- . ful advertisers hit upon an original method of drawing attention to his goods. The last advertisement he penned bears date March 6, and before t was in type its author was dead. The tribute to the memory of the deceased paid by the 1200 watersiders workers, who stood, before going to work on Tuesday morning, silent and with bowed heads, was an eloquent one and testified to the popularity of the deceased whose kind heart and sterling character won for him friends innumerable. TOO MANY BY HALF! A city firm advertised the other day for a clerk, at a modest wage, and received hundreds of replies in response to that solitary advertisement. Tho fact is the clerk’s is a terribly overcrowded calling and to make matters worse almost every immigrant ship that arrives from the Old Country brings more clerks. Of course Auckland forms no exception to tho rule. It is tho same story everywhere. For the great majority clerking is a “blind alley” occupation. In a comparatively small percentage of cases tho clerk, owing to exceptional ability, good luck, or both, makes good and may in the course of time attain to a decent position With the rank and file it is different. They must be content to give the best years of their lives for small pay, and when increasing years render them less efficient they must expect to be thrust aside to make room for younger and smarter men. I repeat that this does not happen in all cases. But it certainly happens in a good many. Young fellows who have their own way to make in the world are strongly advised to put their pride in their pocket, and learn a good clean, remunerative trade. my-rlir /'ll D J

I OUR NEW TRAAI-CARS. AVhy, in the name of commonsense did our City Fathers, when calling for , tenders for the ten new tram-cars for a the use of the citizens decree that these cars should be of the closed-in type with which Aucklanders are so familiar? In Dunedin the cable cars i carrying passengers to several of the suburbs consist of a platform with a double row of seats, in which the passengers sit back to back, and a roof. These cars are very popular with the Dunedin people who love fresh air. Aucklanders, so far as I have observed, love it too. But Auckland tram-passengers don’t get much of it, and even when the car- , windows are thrown open (although they are seldom allowed to remain open long) tho atmosphere of our ? Auckland cars is generally stuffy and , oppressive, especially during such hot weather as we have been experiencing ■in this city of late. Open tram-cars ) at all events during the summer and Autumn months, would be a boon un- ‘ peakable. r HOAIE WORK. ’ It is often said that our sclr 01-days are the happiest lime of our lives. Well, 1 have my own opinion about that, and 1 have never yet met the “grown-up” who will admit that he would like to live hijs school-days over again. There was, and still is, too much “home work” for one thing. Apropos of that a correspondent of the l l \ 1 1 morning paper puts the case very well when he says that while he does not object to a reasonable amount of home study he regards three hours’ toil every evening as too much of a good tiling for any child to endure. Few adults can work hard all day and then work all the evening aS well without serious risk to their health, and to expect children to do this is downright cruelty. Personally I would abolish all home work, being persuaded that if this heavy handicap in tho race for knowledge were lifted from the shoulders of children they would learn far more and with infinitely less effort than they now do. It is not only true that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but that the dulness may affect all his future life. CHEAPER CIGARS. The announcement that cigars are to be cheaper in Auckland ’s no doubt interesting to cigar-smokers. But fur every man that smokes cigars habitually a hundred smoke pipes (to say nothing of cigarettes) and after consulting a- leading tobacoc merchant of this city I cannot discover 1 that there is the remotest probability of a fall in the price of “cut-up” or plug. Of course the enormous duty that pipe and cigarette tobacco is now paying under tho new tariff is partly responsible for tho fact the weed is now retailing at from tenpenco to a shilling per ounce. But back of that is another reason. The Meat Trust is not the only trust that requires fighting.