IN COLOGNE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 30 December 1922, Page 9

IN COLOGNE.

IMPRESSIONS OF NEW

ZEALANDERS.

FLUCTUATIONS IN MASK

Messrs Wm. and H. Parkin, of Wellington, have recently^ returned from an interesting trip to the Old Country and Europe. Mr. W. Parkin, in the course of a chat with a Dominion representative, stated that when her left England at the end of September—the end of summer —things were very bad, and there was a great deal of unemployment I in many of the manufacturing districts. Particularly was that so in respect\to engineering, and as many an English city depends largely upon its engineering works, there were many people up against it. Conditions were equally ter_ rible. In -his native town, Halifax, the engineering works of: : Smith, Barber, and Wilson,~larger -than all the foundries of Wellington put together, were closed -down—the big plant being wholly idle-. The carpet trade, for which Halifax i»noted, was, .however, flourishing. As .a wind-up to the trip the Messrs Parkin thought they would like to see a.little bit of Germany, as much out of curiosity as anything else, so they visit, ed Cologne in August last. . This beautiful -old xityf with its magnificent cathedral, was .still held by British .troops. Indeed, on the. very day on which -they* arrived in the city there was a review of the British troops in the great square before the Cathedral. To see the German police keeping the German people back, that the English j people could '~s.ee the English troops.' manoeuvring in the square, brought it) home to one who had ,won the war.

"When we .arrived in Cologne," said Mr. Parkin, "the mark was 4500 to the £1, but on leaving it was 7900 to the £1. On .the day before we left Cologne (to return .to Brussels), we wished ,to some things, so Jiiy brother and -I went to Barclay's Bank .to change a-£5 note each. We •had.to.takeiour places'in a queue, and by pure luck I was ahead of my brother in the .line by about six persons. I got .7250 marks for my £1, but my brother, who was .attended to a few minutes later, got ,7950 marks for his £I—a difference ,of ,700 im a few minutes. Ewo days .later anyone could have got 11,000 marks for the £1.

"It is a crime to smuggle goods out ithe country,.as rthat defeats the export tax, .but still hundreds were at it, •and a good d&eal.of money was being made by the -successful ones, owing to the -value of , the pound sterling and the :lew prief .of "manufactured goods in Germany. ' One man who was caught whilst we were there had no fewer than 130' geld watches -on his person. He was fined ,£ISOO, his watches were confiscated, and he was given six months. laa prison..

th© other 'hand, there are such thiugs as traders' liaises, and having one a man can trade freely in Germany paying the proper expert tax on the goods exported. It is a peculiar, thing that as the >«iark decreases in value the export tax increases. The goods that are favoured most by traders came under the heading1, of hardware, much" of which consists <?f aluminium ware.

.■:■;■'As to prices, clothes ia Cologne were/cheap. _ I could have purchased a suit of good woollen tweed for £1, but did not do so owjag to the «ciit not being to. my liking. The fashionable German goes in for the emphasised waist m his coats. Food seemed very plentiful and was cheap. One could purchase two bottles of lager; beer for Md, and champagne could be. bought for Is 9d per bottle, English money, J but, of course, in Germany we paid in marks at 30 to the penny. A few hours' trip up the Rhine cost' us less than 6d. When on que occasion we had to transfer from a second to a hrst-class train—there are four classes in Germany—-we were put out at being charged 88 marks, but recovered on realising that it only meant 3d in our money. At a first-class hotel at Cologne we paid 500 marks a night, which worked out something less than 2s A lovely breakfast of ham and eggs, hot rolls, and coffee only cost us 6d each." There was no evidence of poverty or want in Cologne, but we were led to believe that the conditions were not so good further inland.'' .-- ■'■'■*BSF'