CHINESE FRUIT SHOPS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 1

CHINESE FRUIT SHOPS.

To the Editor Sir,—ln reply to the unpatriotic letter by “ Live and Let Live.” I think it is nothing more nor less than disgraceful that a white man should so disparagingly refer to the state of white shops as compared with Chinese. One has only to inspect the back premises of any Chinese shop to get an idea of the bad conditions under which the Chinese live. T will admit that women of a class seem to take a delight in spending their husbands’ hard-earned money with the yellow men. This is a peculiar warped state of mind of a certain class of women. Your correspondent states that when God made the yellow man 11c did not intend him to be looked down upon. Perhaps not, and there is no evidence to show that He even intended him to leave China to degrade our white girls, introduce his opium smoking, fan tan, and immorality amongst white races and to wheedle his way into the affections of the white wife who spends the money of the white husband. T will reply to Ah Chang’s whine later. - I am, etc., A WHITE NEW ZEALAND.

the numbers with which its clerks deal are posted xip in sequence. For instance. over one appear the numbers 50001-52000, and so on. The clerks have been well’drilled, and receive a good deal of assistance from one of the two men from the permanent registration section, who spends a lot of his time diving about the back of the counter advising anxious clerks, who want to know what to with somebody whose chassis number is missing, and things of that kind. To facilitate the work, each clerk has an assistant behind him, who hunts up reference cards and speeds up things generally. From to-morrow there will be nine clerks at work, and the assistants will probably be withdrawn, as their purpose to-day was to break the back of the initial rush.

Dealers’ re-licenses fall to the lot of the two men in the permanent registration cubicle, while firms that have a large number of cars receive special attention from a clerk at the back of the counter. That this is a necessary precaution will be shown by the fact that this morning a man came in to relicence twenty cars, that is to say, a task occupying well over an hour. The whole operation is simple, but numbers of strong men and fair maidens were, observed staring steadily at the new form which they had to fill in, before they could hand it over to a clerk together with the old papers. There is always a certain amount of mystery about a printed form. When the formalities had been complied with, the owners were presented with their new black and white number plates. Nobody got the number he would like, but the number he was given, as the plates were handed out in sequence by the officials to each owner as his turn came, without fear or favour.

After all. one plate is very much like another; but there was a. considerable amount of competition when the counters opened this morning as to who was going to get the first plate issued. Members of the Automobile Association are in the happy position of possessing a list of instructions issued by the association, but even without this it is hardly possible to make a mistake in the re-licensing. What has to be done is to present the old papers with the new form correctly filled in, and receive the new number plates. Motor-car owners must pay £2 2s 6d, and motorcvcle owners 12s 6d. The co-operation of the public is sought, in order that the work may be carried out as expeditiously as possible.

the New South Wales State champion.” He went on to say that in the doubles matches the Australians. came much closer to the net than the New Zealanders, and their service and volleying were a good deal stronger. “ I learned a lot • about volleying, and I am satisfied that htere is a lot the Australians can teach its about tennis.”

Seay, however, does not think New Zealand has anything to learn from New South Wales in the matter of running a tournament. “Although there is an Umpires’ Association,” he said, “the first two or three rounds of the State championships were played without umpires. On the whole arrangements for the tournament were not as good as those in the New Zealand championships.

The Canterbury man thinks that Miss Speirs, the Dominion champion, would be a good match for Miss Akhurst and Miss Cox, the New South Wales champions. They were both heady players like Miss Speirs. On the social side, the tour was pleasant for the visitors, who were entertained wherever they went. Seay played some games on the night courts, but he said that play could not be taken very seriously on them. “ They are not used by the best players.”