AUCKLAND LETTER.

Thames Star, 24 December 1921, Page 5

AUCKLAND LETTER.

AN INVASION. 'WARE CROOKS! XFrom Our Correspondent.) ' AUCKLAND, December 21'. Hundreds of people from "the other side" have .recently arrived in Auckland, intent, no doubt, on "doing" Rotorua and other places of holiday resort. It is to be hoped that the strangers do not include any> of the crooks that have been so much in evidence of late in Sydney and Melbourne. But visitors to the : racing carnival at Ellerslie on Boxing Day and following days will do well to keep a sharp look-out, and avoid keeping their money in their hip pockets —about the most unsafe place in which to deposit bank-notes or pu v ses. Australian pickpockets arc now quite as expert and audaeiouus as the London ones. A friend of mine, writing from Sydney a week or two ago, described how he was assaulted and robbed of £IBO in a Sydney suburb in broad daylight. He was on his way home, and was carrying the money, the property of his firm, in a handbag. It was a Saturday, and, as the banks were closed when he received the cash, he was •taking it home,, intending to bank it on the following Monday morning, as he had often done before. The thief evidently got to know this, and waited for him in a quiet suburban road, followed hum, struck him a stunning blow on the head, left him insensible, and decamped with the booty. x He has never been caught. Such • robberies, it seems, are quite of common occurrence in Sydney and Melbourne just now. -Another dodge is known to the police as "the husband stunt." This is how it works: A well-dressed and attractive woman is 'discovered in a fainting condition in the -corridor of a good-class hotel. Presently a male guest comes along, sees the lady in distress, and proffers his assistance. The lady, apparently very ill, asks him to escort her to her bedroom, and no sooner have the pair entered the room, when a man calling himself the lady's husband, rushes in. You can guess the rest — blackmail, of icourse, under threat of "exposure." A well-to-do squatter was victimised recently in Sydney in this way, . ~-,-. * MATRIMONIAL. - are probably more divorce eases heard in Auckland than in any other city of, the Dominion. Of course, the population of Auckland is considerably larger than that of Wellington, Christchureh, or Dunedin. But even so, Auckland would appear to have more than its fair share of unhappy marriages. During the recent session of the Supreme Court in this city, an extraordinary number of divorce petitions were heard. Fifty-four connubial knots were untied in five hours... During the forenoon, divorces were granted at the rate of one in every eight minutes. In the afternoon the rate was in every six minutes. This is probably a record for New; Zealand. Next day the additional ease's were dealt with.. One lady'who sought to have the marriage tie dissolved, told the Court that she and her husband had never lived together. They parted immediately after the ceremony, when she at once returned to "mamma." Decree nisi. In another ease the parties had lived together for nearly 40 years. Then the, husband came home one night "under the influence," and put his wife out of the house. "I never went back," said the lady. In a third case (but this was an application in another Court for a separation order) the wife produced a pair of lady's gloves, with the significant remark, "Not my size." She got her order. THOUGHT BETTER OF IT. "So you are going to tax the children," said Mr Holland, in the House, to the Prime Minister when the latter expressed the intention of making the sixpenny seats at the "movies" carry a tax of a penny. "The tax is an optional one," replied Mr Massey, which, of course, meant, "if people don't want to pay the tax they needn't go to the pictures." As someone has since remarked, this way of referring to obnoxious taxes as "optional" is a very aggravating trick of Mr Massey's. The smokers were told, when the tobacco duty was raised, that the tax was an optional one, and the beer and whisky drinkers were told the same thing when ihe duty on malt liquors and spirits was increased so enormously. The fact that a tax is "optional" is no .consolation to the taxed. However, Mr Massey has since decided, as you know, to exempt all theatre seats up, and under, the value of ninepence from taxation. But why ninepence? Does this foreshadow an increase in the price of the cheap seats —from sixpence to ninepence? If so, I fancy the picture showmen are making a mistake. But we shall see what we shall see.

CH&ISEMAS, SHOPPING.;; ! New Zealand is suffering,, as everybody knows, from the "financial stringeney&>jy£fhaye heard %d^g|jj|j

a more tempting .display of Christmas cheer and articles suitable for presentation than they do this Christmas. The city is full, too, of the usual holiday - crowds, well-dressed, happy, and prosperous-looking, and, apparently, with plenty of "money to burn" in their pockets. Depression or no depression, Auckland traders are evidently expecting to reap a fine harvest. In fact, some of them are doing it now. A leading tobacconist tells me he is as busy as he can be in executing Christmas orders, and a large wine and spirit firm report that they are being inundated with orders. The new tariff does not appear to be restricting the sale of "luxuries," so far as Auckland is concerned, anyhow. "It's a poor heart that never rejoices," is a favourite motto of the Auckland people. And that, no doubt, explains everything.