AUCKLAND UNIQUE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1244, 19 February 1914, Page 40

AUCKLAND UNIQUE.

TRAVELS IN MANY LANDS.

“Having travelled in many lands and seen many beautiful things, you may say I think Auckland unique.” The speaker turned to the reporter with a witty smile. Mrs. Holman —wife of the New South Wales Premier—who has been staying at “ Cargen,” Auckland, is one of the most charming and arresting personalities. Mrs. Holman, before her marriage, was a well-known Australian journalist, Miss Ada Kidgell. She still retains the keenest interest in all questions for the advancement of women and the betterment of their working conditions. Mrs. Holman is accompanying her brilliant husband on a flying visit to New Zealand, bent upon , sight seeing. When a representative of the “Review” called upon her she had just returned from a motor drive around Auckland’s beautiful suburbs. “In point of fact,” the speaker continued, “it is the first time I have ever seen the entire shape of a harbour. Hobart can be seen by halves, Sydney nas no hills big enough. This is the only one that lies at your feet like a map. In Rome, Venice, Naples, you only see bits. In London, even, from the top of Selfridge’s great building, you cannot . see for the density of the atmosphere. This is the one city that can be taken in at a glance. When you stand on the summit of One-tree Hill it lies at your feet. It is like a raised map. Haven’t you any complete maps of the place. My husband and I have tried to get one apd failed. We could get parts. Is it beyond the powers of the local designers?” and the tourist smiled interrogatively. “What do I think of the Hot Lakes?

“ are weird in the extreme. Unique in the world’s wonderland. The Hon. Bryce said they are not bigger in area than Yellowstone Park, bfut none are so marked in ac-

tion. They are terrorising. I have not slept without being haunted, by their unearthly activity. “The contrasts of travel are.keen. From Paris to Somaliland is a far cry. The Latin Quarter and Bombay touch hands but in the loye of colour. Monte Carlo and New Zealand only in love of the sun and cleanness of atmosphere. Your beauty spots in New Zealand have one. great charm. Your towns another. They are not spoilt by vile smells. Nor does the sight round the corner, the sight of poverty and degradation, instantly banish pleasure. That is so often the experience in England and on the Continent.

“Last year I was .in the Riverina, and passed from one beautiful spot, to another.. Monte Carlo stands out brilliantly above them all Not be-; cause I had a good win there, but because it is the most beautiful in a;

country famous for beauty. My bus- , band laughed and told me to throw ■ ten, my- little-girl’s -age. ■ I lost, but | I remembered she was not ten -yet, j so I tried again and backed nine, and won a big only two at- ! tempts to break the . bank. -?

“Monte Carlo is a beautiful place? It is a combination of beauty and million- i aires. Wellington and Auckland should take note of its town planning, j It is so beautiful, the houses; cling , wherever they can get a foothold, and i a motor car can run up to the top of each hill terrace, but I hope 1 i shall never see Wellington or Auck- i land given over . to. the individual in ■ opposition to the community in the same manner. I hope New Zealand will never fall into the hands of the , millionaire in the same way the beau- ■ tiful towns have done in the older lands.

“ No, I don’t think it will while it follows out its policy of the advancement of the whole community. The beauty spots here belong to the people, and you feel free to wander at will. In the Old World it is different. Different in a manner the people of New Zealand do not understand. -

“Wheiy I was at Home, I visited some beautiful parks. Two of them belonged, one lo the Duke of Devonshire, and one to the Duke of Norfolk. These parks were open to the people free, but a visitor always' felt on sufferance. You could be turned- out at any time. In fact,

one park was closed because some people happened to break a branch from a tree.

“The architecture of Auckland does not strike me as befitting the place. It is lacking in proportion and dignity. Some of the houses in New Zealand look cheap and unpainted. I have seen houses which look 'decayed enough to be several hundred years old. If you must have wooden houses they should b(e kept painted. They look naked and ashamed. But I admire your red roofs amidst the trees. They are gay as a garden. I think the most wonderful architecture I have seen is St. Teter’s, Rome. Inside it reminded me of a chamber at the Jenoleon Caves in the Blue Mountains. The chamber is called the Temple Bwal„ after an Assyrian temple. Otherwise, Rome, I found, disappointing. The country around was uninteresting from a scenic point

of view, flat and dusty. The famous. Seven Hills of Rome would be described as pimples on the earth’s i surface by a New Zealander. ■ “What chiefly struck me in Eng-, land was the hideousness of some ot the manufacturing towns. the .cutlery town, for instance, Man-; Chester, and the pottery towns of Derbyshire. While a mile further were green glades, torrential streams/ old trees, and all the beauties of the- : English countryside.

“What astonishes me in Auckland is the absolute lack of planning, and the impossibility of strangers finding their way about. The streets are unnamed, or, if named, the name is placed on some obscure corner, where no one would ever think of looking.. The American plan is much better. All streets lying in one direction are numbered, and the cross streets are also called by their number, but; avenues instead of streets. A stran-i ger has no difficulty in finding any place in America. “New Zealand should, send its public men more afield. We may be awfully clever, but none of us can gain knowledge biy intuition. It is the possibilities of a place as well as its potentialities at which we i should. aim.” When travelling, in England Mrs. > Holman had the pleasure of renewing .

a friendship made with Mrs. H. B. Irving.-'■ Mrs. Irving is engaged in • municipal work as a councillor, and devotes a good deal of her time to

work amongst the poor of the St. Pancras district. Mrs . Holman attended every possible conference on women suffrace, and there met and enjoyed the friendship of Lady Stout, who was engaged in similar social work.

Mrs. Holman, who has done and seen so much, both alone and in company with her brilliant husband, has r/jemained surprisingly young, witty, vivacious, tactful, yet withall the deep and thoughtful thinker, whose voice and pen would be ever ready to uphold the cause of the weak, ther downtrodden and the feeble ones of the earth.

Mr. J.'H. T. Bond, general traffic manager of the Union Company, who has beejn upon a business trip to New Zealand, returned to Sydney by the Maheno which sailed on February 12th.‘