OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 687, 25 November 1921, Page 5

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

FORTUNE TELLING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Auckland, Nov. IS. “Fortune Telling and the Future” was the attractive title of the ser,/non delivered at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church last Sunday evening by the Rev. J. Lamb Hairvey. The preacher characterised the professional revealers of (the dim, dark future as “dangerous frauds,” and said their art was “simply a compound of clever guess-work and trickery” Palmists and crystalgazers were denounced as mischievous humbugs Well, it was all very true, of course, but the rev., gentleman’s remarks would have come with a good deal more force had they been made two or three year*? ago. At that time Auckland was full of fortune-telliers, whose advertisements appeared daily in the papers, and who carried on thefir business in the most open and unblushing manner. But one day the police having presumably nothing better, to do, took it into their heads to round up [the fortune-tellers, and as the result of a series of presecutions fhe latter were compelled to abandon what was doubtless a very profitable game.' There may be a little fortunetelling still! practised in this city, a# is no longer a regular calling. The risk is 100 great. This being so, it was perhaps hardly worth while to preach a sernfbn about it. The fact is the old-fashioned sermons, with their “thirdlies” mid, “fourthlies” and “in conclusion” will no longer drtaw big congregations but sermons about card playing theatre-going dancing, cards and fortune-telling, eitc., can be depended upon to fill even th# largest churches.. NOT A LUXURY-A NECESSITY. There is probably not one smoker in Auckland—or put of it, for that matter—who does- not protest' against tobacco being classed as a luxury by Mr Massey. The only people that I have m4t> tha|t agree with the Premier are But smokers, that is nine men out of every ten, will tell you that “ ’baccy is to them as necessary as the bread they eajt, or the kea they drink.” If Mr Massey smokes he. must be perfectly well* aware of the truth of what I have just written. 1 If he doesn’t smoke he' cannot, of course, understand a craving he has never felt. Personally, I am in entire accord wfth the writer in one of the local dailies, who said that evdry time fresh tariff proposals cropped up the unfortunate smoker was considered faifr game by the Government, and was made to fork out an additional tax. The only remedy, of course, is for the devqtees of the weed /to “swear off” for a month or two. Put that remedy would probaby be considered by the majority of smokers worse than the disease.

AUCKLAND’S MORALS. Morally this city is no better than it ought to be. This fact was commented upon pretty severely at the last meeting of /the Auckland Presbytery.' In referring to a visit which he had just paid to a certain refuge fo>r little unfortunates, a minister remarked that no fewer than sixty of the children it sheltered were illegitimate. One mother, declared this gentleman, was thirteen, and a half years of age, while another girl only twelve years old was about /to become a mother. A year or two ago the matron of another institution of this kind told of several cases of little girls, mere children themselves, who were either mothers or expected to become mothers. Recently one of our judves, in referring to the nume/rous cases of juvenile immorality, said the root of the trouble was Hack of parental control. This is unfortunately true.

ADAM’S ALE. The beau(ties of our Waitakere ranges were glowingly descanted upon by Mr Wesley SpHagg at a Rotary Club luncheon last yyeek. Waitakere, it seems, means “plenty of wood and water, and (taking that as his text the speaker remarked .that the city dweller who drank tap* watefr could not imagine the deliciousness of the Waitakere waiter as found in its native creeks. Then Mr Spragg went to tell how a visitor «.o \he famous ranges exclaimed, after a long drink from one of the creeks : “And yet there are brewers in New Zealand !” There was a pause after that interesting anecdote, and then a fellow-fnember of the club observed fervently: “Thank heaven there are!” Roa;rs of laughteH greeted the interruption.

A GOOD STORY. . Here is a story that one of our well-known magistrates tells—and tells inimitably. It happened this incident, in a country township near Napier. The police sergeant, newlytransferred hadl only just* arrived m the place and his first night pr wed a pouring wet one. Presently a stalwart Maori put in an appearance, and being asked what he wanted, replied: “ You come my place. A man there he annoy my wife He wont go away. You come and put him out ” The sergeant, not much lasposed to turn out on such a right, suggested that the complainant should deal wih the intruder on his domestic privacy himself. _ ine Maori said he wasn’t going to risk a charge of assault. After a ong walk in the drenching rain the pair arrived at the scene of the trouble. Seated by the kitchen fire was a shabby, under-sized individual, who seemed to be making himself a home. Seatajd opposite to him was the wne of the Maori who certainly seemed a good deal “annoyed. The sergeant," soaked through by the rain, was not an a particularly .wimble mood. Wasting no words, he seized the unwelcome guest by the scrub of the neck and threw him into the road. “There,” he said, “why couldn’t you have done that yoarselC ? You’re big enough!” “Me?” the Maori “no fear! Him te bailiff.”