FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23026, 2 May 1938, Page 6

FIFTY YEARS AGO

IMPRESSIONS OF 1 AUCKLAND VISITOR FROM UNITED STATES As many opinions on Auckland have been expressed in recent years by world tourists, the views of an overseas visitor 50 years ago make interesting reading. The following extracts are taken from a report reprinted in the Nkw Zkai-a.nd Hkrald of May 2, 1888, from a Californian paper which bad interviewed ah American woman who had spent a year in Auckland: "Auckland, a large city of 75,000 inhabitants, is a beautiful place, nicely laid out with wide streets. There are plenty of parks filled with trees, Mowers and statuary of Greek gods and noted Englishmen. Auckland 'is English, you know.' And, of course, they consider an Englishman the lineal descendant in point of excellence and nobility general ly of the gods of ancient Greece. "1 tell you the girls are tramps. Short skirts, thick walking shoes, and a sharp dash out into the suburbs early in the morning is. only a slight recreation. When a .gfrl strikes off early and covers her throe or four miles, she eats more than three spoonsful of breakfast when she settles herself at the table; and when later in the day she scores 10 miles,, she just enjoys her dinner. That makes them stronglunged, brown-cheeked, red-lipped, bright-eyed and substantial through and through; girls of whom the classic English poets loved to sing," -