PROFESSOR HUGO ON AUCKLAN CIRLS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 233, 28 February 1885, Page 4

PROFESSOR HUGO ON AUCKLAN CIRLS.

To the Editor Observer : Sir, — As a constant reader of your valuable journal, perhaps you will allow me the opportunity of taking exception to a paragraph in last week's column. It was. to the effect that Professor Hugo had expressed an opinion that the prettiest girls in the colony were to be found iv Nelson, with Auckland second, and Gisborne third. Now, it would be out of place in a public print, for me to charge tbe worthy Professor with telling falsehoods,, however .much I might be inclined to tha_fc v opinion ; suffice it for me to say that in this instance the Professor, to my mind, haa spoken the truth with penurious frugality ; and this statement.of bis will have the much-to-be-regretted, effect of making the young ladies of the. plac.es-.mentioned vainer of their • personal chardis and accomplishments than previously. Why I take exception to the statement of the Professor is that I have been in the places he mentions, and have made a considerable stay in all, and I say, without the least hesitation, that, as regards good looks, our Auckland girls are far before their Nelson sisters. But there is a little spot in the North Island, not a great many hours' journey from Auckland, the young lady inhabitants of which far and away eclipse for good looks the young ladies in any of the places mentioned by Professor Hugo. Not to keep you and your readers in suspense any longer, the little spot I refer to is New Plymouth, the fair residents of which are noted all over the colonies for their beauty. One colonial paper, in an effort to be sarcastic, but with a grain of truth in the latter part of its effusion, said that the only things Ney Plymouth exported were fungus, kumikums, and pretty girls! Perhaps you will say that this statement of mine will have the same effect upon the New Plymouth lassies as I imagine Professor Hugo's opinion will have on the girls of those places mentioned by . him ; bur, lam not the least bit afraid of such an occurrence, and I'll tell you why : The New Plymouth girls have far more sense than to be influenced by these lines in the same way as their sisters in the other cities mentioned, and perhaps when I tell you the reason of this opinion on my part you'll agree with me. I fully realise that I am, to use a bit of slang, not quite right in the ' ' upper story " — " off my pannikin," as the hoodlums would say — or, as our learned doctors w r ould express my state, non compos mentis — just a "leetle bit," mind, Mr Editor, and not sufficient to ensure my commital to, or detention in, the Whau Asylum-. Well, sir,, the pretty New Plymouth girls, before^S^* had been resident in the place a montn7 seemed to have sense enough to become cognisant of my mental state, and would have nothing whatever to do with me ; while the " pretty girls" of both Nelson aud Auckland don't seem to have perception enough to judge me aright, and in both places they made a warm favourite of me. Now, I contend from this statement of fact that the New Plymouth girls will in this instance exercise the common sense which they so evidently possess, and not allow this championing of their rights to make them other I than what they are - the most sensible (I put this qualification first), the prettiest, and the best daughters in all New Zealand's sunny land. — I am, &c, Honour Where Honour is Due.