AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4056, 3 June 1938, Page 7

AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER

DEATH OF AN AUTHORESS. (From a Correspondent.) New Zealand is the poorer for the death of Mary Gurley, who was fatally injured last week, when she was kicked by a horse. One of New Zealand’s most promising writers, Miss Gurney was the author of many short stories and poems that showed deep feeling and an understanding all too rare in these days of superficial writing. Her work had on a number of occasions appeared in the Sydney Bulletin, most critical of Australasian publications. In the same week Miss Iris Wilkinr son, better known as Robin Hyde, vanished in China, where she was collecting material for a book, and also, it is understood, representing one of the prominent English dailies. It would be a severe blow to New Zear land literature if we should also lose our most distinctive writer, one whose future is so hopeful. HUSTLE. Some time ago notices in Auckland papers advised intending patrons to make reservations for the opening of Auckland’s newest cabaret, tfre Metrepole. Yesterday I went along Upper Queen Street to see the new cabaret. So far it is represented by a sea of mud, a few concrete and steel uprights, and a notice that it will open on 15th July. COUNTRY COUSINS. This week is the annual Country Girls’ Week, and the city acting gs host (or hostess) to 130 country g&fe. It is on occasions such as? this whop we see the names of places fropi which our visitor? come thst w© ar $ forced to the realisation that there is a great deal of pioneering being done yet in New Zealand. Last summer I was in the South Island, and saw the conditions of almost complete isolation under which some of the settlers live there—settlement? of whose very existence we are unaware, and the only outward sign of which may be a muddy track apparently leading nowhere. Nor are those settlers helped very much. In one settlement thirty miles from Nelson city the only direct communication with the outside world, apart from the telephone and a thriceweekly mail, was a motor truck which carried intending passengers on top of the load, frequently in company of crated pigs. Until quite recently there had been a regular passenger service, but the Transport Board, for reasons unknown and unguessed, abolished even that. CLASS IS IN. A very good point was made by Mr J. A. C. Allum in the course of an address to a city audience during the week-end. Attacking the theory of class, Mr Allum asked what was the difference between himself (an employer) and any member of the audi - ence who was an employee. The employee was the same kind of person, made exactly the same, and it was the sons and relatives of the employee who would be the business men and employers of to-morrow- Hearing Mr Allum, I was reminded of Punch’s dictum that a Communist was a map who possessed nothing and was will ing to share it with anyone. Incidentally, I think that one could very fairly describe the average “ working-class ” agitator as a disappointed capitalist. THE WISH. Thinking of the outlandish places from which hail some of the country girls now in town reminded me of an old lady I met this summer. Born and raised in a tiny settlement away back in the hinterland of Nelson, she had never seen a city till, when she was 58 years of age, friends took her to Christchurch. She was properly impressed with all that she was shown in the city—the big shops, the theatres, the botanical gardens. But she returned home disappointed because she had not found an opportunity to gratify her dearest wish—she had always longed to ride in a lift I POWER POLITICS. Prior to last week’s Power Board election the Labour people issued pamphlets and advertised extensively to inform the electors that they (the Labour Party) had been instrumental in removing the restriction that prevented non-property-holders from voting; so( they said) we have given the vote to thousands who had been previously denied that inestimable privilege. The result was “ one ” Labour representative on the Board, and he by a majority of less than two hundred. HOLIDAY OR HOLY-DAY. According to reports, there will shortly be yet another organisation showing Sunday pictures in the city, thus bringing the total of Sunday shows to four. We move appreciably nearer the Continental Sunday. Remembering the Sunday nights of a few years ago, when Queen Street was simply a run for idle youth of both sexes, it is perhaps better that there should be some place where they may go to spend a pleasant evening- Certainly the old days, when they went to church or stayed quietly at home, are gone to come no more. It is better to face the inevitable and provide for their amusement.