OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 718, 28 March 1922, Page 5

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent). Auckland, Ma: ch 24. ST. PATRICK’ SOAY. Of course the banks were all closed, as per usual, last Friday in honour of St. Patrick, and equally, of coui’se, they were all rushed on Satday mornng. No onc ; grudges the bank clerks and officials a fair allowance of holidays during the year, but it really seems raather absurd that the business community and the general public should be put to serious inconvenience every time it happens to be the “day,” of seme saint, who probably had no more real existence than Mrs Harris or Jack the Giant Killer. Time is precious in the nineteenth century to waste on myths.

BRAVO. MR GUNSONI Everybody here is talking of the vigorous and yet dignified protest made by Mr J. H. Gunson, Mayor of Auckland, against the very ill-advis-ed speech recited by Dr Liston, coadjutor Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, on the evening of St. Pat rick’s Day at Auckland Town Hall. Speeches as that of the Roman Catholic bishop are calculated to intensify and perpetuate the differences unhappily existing between the English people and the Irish people, and this at a time when, it hoped, theie is at least some prospect of those differences being forgotten. The Mayor’s reply to the bishop has met with wide endorsement. Mr Gunson has always been popular in this city, but never has he been so popular as he has become since he made a pro test that) wll long be remembered, not ony in Auckandy but throughout New Zealand!. & . . THE BOOKMAKERS.

It has long been asserted that notwithstanding the drastic measures adopted by the authorities to put down bookmaking in New Zealand, the old game is still being played, and that report has now been confirued by a Wellington sport, who declares there is just as much book making being carried on within the Dominion as there ever was. The “metallieans’ ” calling must surely be a lucrative one or the fraternity would not be so desperately anxious be re-licensed. To this end, as you know, the “books” are getting up ap etition to the Govei’nment, and I understand it is likely to be a strong one. What chance has it of being favourably received ? I should say “Buckley’s.’ The “tote” is the only form of gambling apparently that finds favour with the powers that be at Wellington. DIRTY MONEY'. The smellful and disgusting bank notes which are now,, and have been for a long time past, in circulation in this gjty are condemned on all hands. The condition of some of these notes is such that the unfortunate bank-tellers, and the cashiers in the larger business housss must run a certain amount of z’isk in handling them, and of course that risk is shared to a lesser extent by the general public,. Gold has', completely disappeared from our currency, and the quantity of, paper money that changes hands every day in Auckland is enormous. I have, on several occasions, declined to accept in payment, when cashing cheques at the banks, the grimy blackened and evil-smelling bits of paper doing duty as bank notes that I have been tendered. As one Auckland business man put it, when speaking of notes such as these: “Ye would be better off with the clean strings of shells and seeds used by the savages." Why isn’t something donej ? If it is impossible to restore our gold coins, why not substitute sovereigns and half sovereigns of baser metal ?

FOOTBALL FOR GIRLS. I understand that at least two tarns of “lady footballers” will be in evidence in Auckland when the football season opens. Apropos of that it is intei’esting to note that the London Football Association —a pretty infiuntial body of its kind —has absolutely declined to sanction any further games being played by girls or young womn under its jurisdiction. I heard the news the other day with satisfaction. Girls are not fitted by Nature for a rough and tumble sport like football. They are not built that way, and they cannot play the game without exposing hemselvs to the most serious risks —risks which may affect their whole after lives. There is not one medical man in Auckland who favours football for girls.

FORTUNE TELLING

In a Wellington fortune-telling case the other day the Inspector of Police said the accused woman was making £5 per day at the garnet Five

pounds a day! £3O a week, £ISOO a year! Why many member of a learned profession is not making the half of it. And it’s so easily earned, too ! Just a pack of cards and unlimited cheek and there you are. I fancy a good deal of fortune telling is going on. under the rose, in Auckland. The chances of making £5 per day in thse times of “financial stringency” is doubtless a pretty strong temptation. Of course if the “teller” gets caught the -consequences are apt to be unpleasant. But she generally knows too much to get caught. As for her “clients” they are everywhere'. “Bless the phools,” wrote an American humourist, “feer ef it were not fer thep hools the wise men (and wimmin) would never get a living.”

“RATHER AN OBSTACLE.” Whn the Hon. W. H. Edgar, Vic., business man and politician, was here recently he was asked his opinion of the tax of 8s 9d in the £ the New Zealand Government exasts from companies,. The man from the other side thought hard for about a minute and then (enthusistic admirer of N.Z. as he professed himself) he had to admit that the tax was “rather an obstacle.” A good many business men carrying on in this country will agree with Mr Edgar. It is.