OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 665, 6 September 1921, Page 5

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

MONEY TO BURN. (F lorn Our Own Correspondent) AUCKLAND, Sep. 2. Notwithstanding the fact that the Press in this country is stressing the need of economy just now, and that an army of Civil Servants are shaking in their shoes, fearful lest the pruning-knife the Government is using so vigorously, should include them in its' sweep, the fact remains that about 40,000 persons (resident in Auckland and out of it) witnessed the second test match. As admission to tlie ground cost iialf-a-crown, and grand-stand seats 7s 6d, quite a lot of money was paid out by the public, i Of course not everyone who witnessed the match paid gate money,” but sufficient numbers pare ft to suggest that, despite the hard times, .there’s still a bit of what the late Harry Rickard was wont to demnominate * “splosh.” Knowing about that impression, I may add, was strengenthened and confirmed by the smart appearance presented by the lady spectators of .the play. We rnaj be hard up, but there is. certainly not much evidence of it when we are out for a day’s enjoyment.

IMPRESSIONS OF AUCKLAND

. Godfrey Turner, a wandering journalist, has been telling the Christchurch people about us. /On the whole he seems to approve of us. How good of him! “The men and women in the streets are as well dressed (in Auckland) as in any ? er town in the Dominion,” said this observer, “which is savin" a very great deal. Ten or fifteen years ago it used to be said that an Auckland lady looked as if she had made hei dress from the second-best lace curtains, half a dozen of assorted safety pins and a bargain lot of tape, ici-day iPbe is so purposeless it as ceased to be funny. Tailor-mades have replaced the makeshifts to a very large extent and the old air of flamboyant imitation of cheap things from Sydney is gone.” I have known Auckland lor many more than 10 or years, and have - no : recollection whatever of the makeshifts’referred to' by this journalist. He is scarcely more happy when he likens Auckland to Hobart and to Capetown. I know both cities. Alderley Street, Capetown (its principal thoroughfare) is or was when I was there, about as lively as say Newmarket or Parnell Comparisons are- proverbially odious! But what has Auckland done to God- , iey THf n ® r that he should compare her with Slowbart? * '

;:\b: IN LUCK’S WAY. *

,1 have heard Stories of newly-arriv-eu immigrants who, . after giving Auckland a trial for a,,week or two were glad enough, if they could manap “’ to clear out for. somewhere mu i■ s a some people have, they become - rolling stones and grumble loudly when they fail to accumulate aiiy moss. ' Occasionally however one hears of people who admit that they are.'glad'they came to Auckland. A caso of this kind has just come to my knowledge. A widow -Iher two girls landed in this citv with the last batch of immigrants. At- that time their joint capital amounted to '.exactly !£.- The elder girl came out as an “assisted,” but her mother and sister paid their own passages. Within 24 hours of landing their mother got a job as laundress and housekeeper at £2 per week and found, the/ younger srirl was taken on by the same employer S housemaid at a very satisfactory wage, and the older daughter is also now in a very comfortable billet. , . y seem to think Auckland is quite alright.

SHARKSKIN BOOTS.

Auckland Harbour, as most people are aware, is sWarming with sharks so much so that these “tigers of the sea ’ are a menace to the ‘safety of bathers on practically all our beaches during the hot months of summer. The question has recently arisen as to whether the sharks many hot possess a commercial value. The shortage of leather in America has led to vast 'quantities of sharkskins being tanned and used as a substitute for the usual thing. Well, ordinary leather is dear enough—even if it is not scarce enough—in New Zealand to render the utilisation of shaikskins, one would think, worth while. And then, of course, there are tthe by-products—the oil etc., and the manufacture of fertilisers. An experimental plant, complete, shouldn’t cost very much, and the industry once started, might help to solve the unemployed problem.

CRUELTY TO A CHILD.

The shocking case reported from Christchurch, in which a tiny girl of six and a-half years of age was shamefully ill-treated by the woman (Burdett Hill-Beckett), who. had “adopted” her, has excited no small attention in Auckland. The unhappy little girl, although a mere baby, was Burdett Hill-Beckett’s white slave and household drudge. She did all the work of the hoqse and then .took the woman her breakfast In bed, afterwards going to schobl. Her reward for these services was being kept short of food and what seems to have been systematic ill-treatment culminating in the savage beating which led to the prosecution of Burdett Hill-Beckett and that person’s imprisonment for 21 days with hard labour. The question being asked in this city in connection with this case is how comes it that a woman such as Hill-Beckett, whose character and reputation must have been known, or at any rate would net have stood investigation, could get permissioin to adopt any motherless child—and subject it for months to the treatment meted out to the small girl in question. Surety if proper precautions were observed it would rot be possible for an “adopter1 ’' child’s life to be made heii upon .earth as this little child’s was?