AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 July 1918, Page 3

AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

[Fkom Our Own Correspondentl

Auckland, July 23

THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

it If th-'.s country does not run dry " at an early date it will not be the fault of the Prohibition Party. Said party is making strenuous efforts to cause the proposals of the Efficiency Board to become the law of the land. Meetings in furtherance of the Blue Ribbon campaign are taking place almost daily in one centre or another. There was a gathering of the kind at Newmarket (suburb of Auckland) the other night. The Rev. Hinton, organiser of the cold water people in the Parneil electorate, made an energetic speech. " They stood," he said, "on the threshold of the greatest opportunity they had ever had." A motion was carried with enthusiasm endorsing the Alliance's acceptance of the Efficiency Board's recommendation, and pledging the meeting to endeavour tosecuiea referendum this year. Now, personally, lam in favour of shutting off the liquor supply during the currency of the war. But if the question of liquor or no liquor is to be submitted to the people let the thing be done properly, and fairly and squarely. The Rev. John Dawson, a leading Prohibitionist, has publicly stated on several occasions, I understand, that only two issues will be put before the voter on when the referendum is taken, viz..- " (1) I vote for total Prohibition in accordance with the terms of the Efficiency Board's recommendations," and "(2) I vote for Continuance." But, as a correspondent of the local morning paper points out, in No. 1 issue there is no mention of compensation, and also this form of ballot-paper only provides for an affirmative vote, and gives no opportunity for any voter to vote against either issue. So only those in favour of these proposals, or either of them, could vote, while those voters who were opposed to either or both of the said proposals could not vote at all! A referendum conducted on these lines certainly would not voice the wishes of the people as a whole, but only of some of the people.

"WHAT THE EYE DOESN'T

SEE," ETC

An Auckland resident while taking a stroll before breakfast the other morning came upon two fruit-hawkers with their barrows. The hour was early, the spot secluded, and the hawkers were preparing for their day's trading. Unperceived by them the stroller stood and J watched them. One man drew apples, in quick succession, from a sack at his feet, moistened each apple with his tongue, polished it with a dirty rag, and passed it over to his mate who deposited it in the barrow. Presumably the men changed places after a while in order that the moistening process might proceed. The observer says that what he saw was not only very disgusting, but might be attended with dangerous consequences to the consumers of the fruit. Of course he is right, and perhaps it is just as well, all things considered, that we do not see all that happens to the things we eat before they reach the table. It is a case of ignorance being bliss. Apropos of this I remember when I was in Sydney some years ago a friend of mine who put up at a certain boardinghouse in the New South Wales metropolis. One day, having nothing to do, he wandered into the back-yard of the establishment. He found the kitchen overlooked this yard, and on glancing through the windows ot the kitchen he perceived the cook —a Chinaman —was busily enr ployed in making pastry. A mug of water stood on the table, and every now and then the cook took a mouthful of water, rolled out the paste afresh —and squirted the .water in his mouth over it. My friend went into the office | e.f the boarding-house and asked for his bill. The proprietor was surprised. " Leaving us to-day?" he enquired, " won't you stop to lunch, it will be ready in less than an hour." My friend said he didn't think he would.

NOT ENOUGH HOUSES.

Time was when you could have had your pick of a score or two of houses in Auckland had you wished to rent one. "To let" stared you in the face in every other street. To-day it is so difficult to find an unoccupied house, at all events anywhere within the penny section, that 'people are actually offering bonusas to anyone who will "lay them on," and it js certain that if a hundred small houses were

erected within easy walking distance of the G,P.O. they would all be let before you could say " knife." Unfortunately, however, building operations in Auckland have been at a standstill ever since the war started, and are likely to remain at a standstill —or next door to it— until the war is over. The present cost of building materials is simply prohibitive.

ALIENS IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Aucklanders, no doubt in common with people resident in other parts of the Dominion, have been greatly interested in the recent cablegrams from England advising that the Imperial Government is at last proposing to take action with regard to the general internment of aliens, and the employment of aliens in public positions. This question of keeping aliens in fat Government billets has long been a cause of discontent or dissatisfaction throughout New Zealand, and since the loss of the Wimmera this feeling (at any rate in Auckland) has become greatly accentuated.

DOING HIS BIT.

While some men of military age, able-bodied and powerful chaps, have done their level best to escape military service, and have even taken to the bush in the hope of evading it (although I am glad to think that, for the credit of the Dominion, such cases are comparatively few), others, mere striplings, and not old enough to be called upon to fight, have contrived to pass, somehow, and have gone to the Front and acquitted themselves right well. Yes, and men far beyond military age invariably have managed, over and over again, to deceive the military authorities, get passed by the doctors, and give a good account of themselves when face to face with Fritz. I heard of a case of the last-mentioned kind only yesterday. A man resident in a country township not very far distant from Auckland ardently desired to go to the war. Being long past military age it seemed a pretty tough problem how to get through. But where there's a will there's a way, and this is a man of resource. He began by having his beard and moustache removed. Then he died his hair, with the result that he might have passed for his own son So youthful did he look that the authorities, including the doctors, made no difficulties, and he was in due course drafted to camp. Now military training is no joke. It is strenuous. It requires you to move yourself. But the recruit 1 am telling you about marched, and went through physical exercises, and drills with the best of them. And then, as Rider Haggard ©r somebody says "a strange thing happened." The dye came off! Silver locks began to appear among the gold, the authorities became inquisitive, and then the cat emerged from the bag, and the too willing recruit was retired from the active service list, and told he must be content with Home Service. But I contend that in acting thus this would-be soldier set a fine example to slackers, and in his way he has done his bit, It is no fault of his that he is not now fighting at the Front.