MOKAI.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 18 June 1913, Page 2

MOKAI.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

, When I mentioned that Mokai, like Helensville, had a North and a South end, I forgot to add that there were no heartburnings on account of train service. The train stops and starts from, neither end, but at a point fight in the middle. The middle course is always the best. On Saturday last a terrific battle was fought on the Mokai football field between a picked team of Maoris from Oruanui and a Bush. team. The game ended in a draw and the usual casualties. Mr Phelan, the Taupo Totara Timber Company's Manager here, himself an old footballer of repute, always acts as referee in these local contests, \ and although his decisions are not always welcomed by both sides their fairness is never questioned. With the "boys" at work or play the right man in the right place. Pictures are quite an institution now' even at Mokai in the wilderness. Mr Authenian, an employee at the mill, giving exhibitions every second Saturday. The pictures are good, the best that Auckland can supply, the audiences large and appreciative, brown and white, Maori and Pakeha participating in the common enjoyment : and despite our reputation for want of sanctity the villain of the piece is still as loudly hissed and the hero as demonstratively honoured as at other times and in other more favoured localities.

God bless Edison, "The Wizard of Mento Park" ! Long may he live to add to the gaiety and the good of nations! Under the magic wand of his enchantments, his phonographs, and cinematographs etc. even such wildernesses and solitary places as Mokai are made glad, life made brighter, homes made happier. There is no stain of blood upon his inventions no cry of anguish in their wake, they come as a boon and blessing to men not as an injury and a curse, God bless Saint Edison.