AUCKLAND LETTER.

Franklin Times, Volume 10, Issue 798, 12 January 1923, Page 5

AUCKLAND LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent). Auckland, January 5. THE HOLIDAYS. The Xmas and New Year holidays just over will long be remembered on account of the frequent rain storms that marred the joy of SO many thousands of pleasure-seekers and dreW down malechations on our variable Auckland climate. That climate recalls the lady of whom it was said that “when she is good she is very good, but when she is bad she is horrid.” Christmas Day was fair and pleasant; the last day of 1 the old year was perfect. But the rain spoiled all the other days devoted to holiday making. The attendance at, the races was affected to a considerable extent, so was the attendance at the Zoo, and of course picnicking,-" on the open beaches, generally such a i prominent feature at holiday times in Auckland, was almost out of the question. However, it’s an ill wind, etc., and the / picture theatres were all liberally patronised. What we want in Auckland is somq place similar to the “White City,” which for years was one of the attractions of Sydney. In that picturesque collection of “shows” of one kind and another, there were many under cover,, so that visitors were made/ independent of the weather to a large extent. Someday private enterprise is bound to supply some resort of this kind toe Auckland. But the time is not yet. i BOY BURGLARS. The arrest on Xmas Day of a party of boy, burglas, 13 or 14 years of age, charged with breaking and entering suburban residences and stealing property to the total value of nearly £IOO has directed attention to the fact that robberies by boys are becoming unpleasantly common in Auckland. In England juvenile crime has largely ‘decreased owing to the Boy Scout movement, which is undoubtedly doing (in England) invaluable work moulding the national character. Of course we have Boy Scouts in , Auckland, but the movement has lost much of its force in this country for some reason or other, and does not seem to appeal to our boys as it once did. A Boy Scout revival is badly needed in New Zealand. We want to revive the old enthusiasm. How is it to be done ?

MALICIOUS FOOLS. The fact that therb were twentynine false alarms of- fire recorded during 1922 is something that Auckland has little cause to be proud of. It is not a pleasant reflection that we have in our midst twenty-nine persons capable of deliberately and of malice aforethought summoning the firemen on a fool's errand. Most of the false alarms are made under cover of darkness, the malicious fool responsible for the trouble doubtless watching the arrival of the firefighters on the scene from some place of concealment. Of course while the. brigade is hastening to a pretended fire a real fire is always liable tio break out, the consequences of which may prove .disastrous. Personally I consided that the Government should offer a standing reward for the conviction of any person giving a false alarm of fire and that the reward should be a really substantial one.

THE LIBERALS AND THE LABOR PARTY. Mr T. M. Wilford, leader® of the Liberal-Labour Party, had a good deal to say when in Auckland the other day regarding the hopes and aspirations of organisation, of which he is the bead. He spoke with enthusiasm of the hopes for resuscitatation of the Seddonian Liberal and Labour 'Federation, and the formation of an Auckland branch of the latter, and declared that Liberalism had “sprung like a giant* to its feet.” Personally, I should have more faith in the future if Liberalism in this country if it were content to stand on its own bottom and declined to have anything whatever to do with Labor. "The Labor Party to-day is not the Labour Party to which Dick Seddon belonged or which he favoured. In Seddon’s time Labour was a good deal more modest than it has since become, and did not include within its ranks Anarchists, Communists, and men who hardly take the trouble tq conceal thier admiration for Messrs Lenin and Trotsky. I may be told “Oh, they are merely the extremeists and their views are not shared by the rank and file of the Labour Party.” To which I would reply that the accredited leader of the Labour Party is Mr H. E. Holland, and if that gentleman’s Bolshevistic sympathies are not shared by the party as a whole what right has he to lead that party ? We hear much just now of the trouble in the Near East and of probability of another war. To my mind a greater menace than any threatening the Empire from without if that which threatens it from within.