OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 670, 27 September 1921, Page 5

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

HE’D BETTER HAD LEFT iT ALOftfE. W ■■■■■ (From Our Own Correspondent). AUCKLAND, SEPT. 23. Mr Holland, Leader of the GTicisl Labour Party, severely criticised the policy of the Government in the course of his recent address in Auckland, in connection with the importation of coal from overseas while a super-abundance of coal was available in New Zealand. It is true that this country has imported great stocks of coal from the Englisn and Welsh mines, and also from Australia, and has paid a stiff price for it. But this was done in order to avert a coal famine, and the holding up of our industries indefinitely. Of course Mr Holland is quite right about there being plenty of coal in New Zealand. It has been estimated that there is sufficient in the Dominion —beneath the surface—to supply our requirements for hundreds of years. The trouble is or has been,to persuade our miners to unearth this coal, or some of it, to supply our everyday needs. The less the’ Labour Party has to say about the coal trouble the better. Scarcely more hao was Mr Holland when he dealt with what he termed “the criminal practice by which the Government was bringing cut immigrants without ensuring them homes or work.” And yet he must have known perfectly well that no immigrants are now brought to New Zealand unless they are norni nated by responsible persons and guaranteed by them employment at this end. I hold no brief for the present Government, but it is pi’ob ably preferable to a Labour Government, anyhow.

“MOVIE” MEN PROTEST. Some of our Auckland showmen fprmed part of the deputation of movie men and others that recently waited upon the Acting' Premier at Wellington to urge the removal of the Amusements Tax. Unfortunately, as you know, Sir Francis Bell not only refused to entertain the notion of abolishing the obnoxious tax, but more than hinted it was to be “largely increased.” If that is so, it means, of course, deartr pictures for the increasecll tax is bound to oe passed on to the public. Told by the deputation that this tax “hit hardest the amusement of the roor,” Sir Francis still preserved an un sympathetic attitude. He is plainly after the bawbees, and was evidently impressed when the showmen pleaded that athletic sports’, gatherings, picnics, dances, and bazaars, etc., were all untaxed. Really, the Government ought to bo very much obliged to this deputation for suggesting some new sources of revenue. Whether the footballers, cricketers, tennis players, boxing people, and the promoters of dances, and bazaars will thank the movie men is .another matter. But sauce for the goose, etc., etc., and that would appear to be Sir Francis Bell‘s opinion, too.

TOBACCO. An Auckland daily recently published a short article in favour of what Charles Kingsley called “the Divinist weed under the sun.” The writer quoted the official magazine of the “Pasteur Institute” in Paris, which declar’d : “Not only does the ir.haling of tobacco smoke kill all meaner of dangerous germs, but it is a sure preventive against cholera, diptheria, and crebro-spinal meningitis, etc.” Thiss brought a letter in the same Auckland journal arom an anti-tbbacconist, who declared, in effect, that the Pasteur Institure did not know what it was talking about and that ’baccy was responsible for all the ills to which flesh is heir, and a few more. The truth of the matter is that most anti-itobaccoites don’t smoke because they can c, and, (like another kind of total abstainers) not content with “swearing off” themselves they insist upon everybody swearing off, and

“Compound for sins Ithey are to by damning those they have no mind to.”

THE MURDER GANG OF THE SIXTIES.

Did Sullivan, of the East Coast murder gang, so notorious some sixty years ago, die recently in Auckland ? Rumour has it so, but it’s hard to say. The report of his death has revived public interest in the doings of the miscreants, whr made a trade of murder and robbery in the early days of the Dominion. Laying in wait for their victims, in some lonely spot, bailed them up, then each member of the gang would take a man into the bush under cover of his revolver, and shoot him in cold blood. Then the murderers met and divided the plunder. When, at last, Burgess, Leir, Kelly and Sullivan were captured and put upon their trial, Sullivan turned Queen’s evidence, and so saved hi, 3 neck, while his partners

were hanged at Nelson gaol. Many stories have been told regarding the subsequent adventures of Sullivan. It was said that years after his mates were hanged, this man obtained work at a‘lime kiln in New Zealand. That, as soon as his identity leaked out his ■ fellow workers seized him. and threw him into the kiln, and that his eyes

were burned out by the lime. Anther story is that he returned to England in 1874, and being recognised by a member of the crew who had known him in New Zealand, was warned by the sailors to keep out of their way or they would pitch him overboard. Now it is said 1 that he died but a few days ago in poverty and under an assumed name, in this city. But his death/lias been reported so often ! —in Perth, W.A., in Sydney, in Victoria, and l elsewhere. If all these yarns are to be credited the man must have had as many lives as a cat !