OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 648, 8 July 1921, Page 5

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

ANOTHER LOAN.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

AUCKLAND, July 8,

Within the next few weeks the citizens of i Auckland will be asked to authorise the raising of a municipal loan of £120,000 for the widening of Queen Street. This is in connection with the improvement scheme which the City Fathers hope to effect in the not distant future and whicn will include the sweeping away of the oid City Markets.. The latter, owing to their disreputable appearance, have long been an eyesore.. It’s time they were gone. Yet tthe old identities will probably regret the disappearance of what was in days gone by a popular Auckland institution. It is difficult to realise to-day , that the dreary collection of ramshackle sheds within a stone’s throw of the Town Hall were, once upon a time, a centre of life and activity and that they presented on Saturday nights, when the Auckland housewives of that day, or many of them, sallied forth to do their week-end (Shopping, a scene of bustle and animation almost indescribable. There were stalls, or open 'shops, for the saie of poultry, eggs, butter and cheese, fruits and. vegetables* snd & score Oi other things Hundreds went to buy and hundreds more went to look om But, somehow or another, I do not think the old markets were ever a paying proposition, and they became gradually deserted. Soon they will be a mere memory. i FAITH CURES. Since my last, in which I referred to the alleged wonderful faith cures effected by the Maori miracle man, Ratana, I have been interested in reading, in the current issue of the Church Gazette, an article on faith healing, in which the writer declares that in regal’d to the wonderful recoveries from sickness, reported tot be due to healing by faith, it is the duty of the public to be sceptical “and not to resort to a supernatural explanation of any extraordinary happening - until the inadequacy of all natural explanations has been convincingly demonstrated. The evidence should be* thoroughly 'sifted' and impartially examined. It is a pity that the cures effected by. Ratana have not been subjected tc expert scrutiny. Vague genera! statements about marvellous recoveries are of little value. Particular cases should be fully described, every detail being carefully verified. A number of selected patients should be thoroughly examined before passing upder the influence of the healer and they should be again examined afterwards, and closely watched for some time. A genuine healer will invite the most rigorous scientific investigation and welcome every ratioinal test.”

DO THEY STAY CURED? 1 heartily endorse the above view. Do Ratana’s cured patients stay cured? I well remember, years ago, ' a wandering- healer who visited Auckland and claimed to banish disease and infirmity almost with a wave of his hand. One of his patients was a rmn. fellow (a newspaper ' runner) Sf' k?ft arm had been paralysed, at he carried it in a doubled-up on. If was quite useless to him. The healer commanded him to straighten the arm out and after a desperate effort he did so. He went away cured —as he supposed—with tears of joy running down his face. Two days later (by which time the healer had departed) the ami was as, helpless as ever. AN ABSURD SYSTEM. A South Island visitor to “Drunks’ Island,’- as Roto Roa is sometimes called, has directed attention to a glaring absurdity in connection with the place. It seems that the men who are sent there to sober up are allowed to engage in such occupations as vegetable-growing and poultryraising, and to pocket the profits of their industry. That is to say that when they quit the island whatever money they may have earned during their detention there is handed over to them in a lump sum, The result, of course, in the majority of eases, is that the newly-released prisoner when he steps ashore at Auckland finds himself with nothing to do and a pocketful of money. Then, as likely as not he starts on a mild jamboree, “blues” all his cash, and returns to his home, wherever that may be, “stoney-broke.” Long sentence men now earn regular wages while in gaol, which wages are passed on to their wives and families, and it is urged that a similar plan should be brought into operation at Roto Roa. Of course. THE CHAIN-PRAYER NUISANCE. I referred some time ago to the reappearance in Auckland of the chainprayer, the recipients of which are commanded to write a number of copies, and pass them on to six or seven other people, the threat being

held out by the original sender that if his directions are disobeyed some terrible calamity will overtake the offender. There is only one thing to be done in a case of this sort —-to treat the matter with the contempt it deserves. The chain-prayer is once more in evidence in this city, and also, it seems, in Wellington where the Mayor, I am glad to note, is deal-* lng with the nuisance as it ought to be dealt .with. “1 have written to the senders,” he states, “telling them that it is useless sending letters to me, as they only find their way to the waste-paper basket.” Mrs Wright (the Mayoress) also received a prayer accompanied by the usual threat if sh- failed to pass it on. “She passed it on*” says the Mayor, “to the fireplace.?’ HE WANTS TO GO HOME. If the newly-arrived immigrant, W. H. Sharpe, succeeds in getting back to England, what kind of a yarn is he likely to spin when he finds himself once more in the Old Country? He will say: “I was led to believe that if I came out to New Zealand i could get a job at good right away. So I went to New Zealand and couldn’t get a job at all. And when I wanted to return Home the New Zealand Government declined to let me go because it paid £l9 towards my passage out and required me to refund the money.” Not a very good advertisement for New Zealand. But possibly the publicityt his case has excited may result in somebody or oth'er finding suitable work for Mr Shafpe, and in that case he may live to be jolly glad he didn’t leave Maorilnnd. There are worse countries after all, whatever the home-sick new chum may think about it.