REMARKS ON THE AUCKLAND YOUTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11151, 25 August 1899, Page 3

REMARKS ON THE AUCKLAND YOUTH.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— much has been said of the extraordinary attraction Queen-street possesses for tho Auckland girl at the hour when tho Auckland ''observant young man returns homeward," that I too sallied forth to observe this observed of observers. Needless to say, I expected much. All my spare time being occupied in studying the columns of the New Zealand Herald, and especially the Saturday Supplement, I had never before visited your great thoroughfare at this exciting hour. My very best hat was donned. Thankfully I noted that my gloves were an excellent fit. The hour chimed out as I hastened past the Library clock. I was in Queen-street at last. I saw many girls, some tall, some short, nearly all pretty and welldressed. But where, oh, where! were the colonial chevaliers? Not surely these "hatlifters." None of them very broad of shoulder nor straight of leg, they suggested to a " man-hungry" (this pleasant compound word is not mine) seeker but a Barmaoide feast. Could it be for intellectual or conversational charm he was sought? But a glance at his somewhat common, utterly uncultured expression convinced me this was not the case. Tho impression- conveyed to the impartial observer was that his satisfaction with himself was greater than any that oould be conveyed through a Queen-street channel. Indeed, this attribute alone saved him from an otherwise weak personality. I had heard one Auckland girl (not overawed by this sublime attribute) sum up the Auckland young men as sketches." I felt the justice of the description; but this Auckland girl had travelled, and seen men of other lauds. Well, the result if my observations of. this attractive pave-

Mont-play was that tho Auckland girl, as a rule, sees too few men, and her view is too much confined to Auckland " sketches." By-and-by, when federation has opened up our ports, among other good results, our artistic. Auckland girls may meet some more worthy than the "hat-lifters" I met, more worthy of their artistic taste and attention.—l am, etc., Paving Stoxk.