AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 22 August 1918, Page 2

AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

fFROM Our Own Correspondent]

Auckland, August 19.

WELL PUT, MR WHITTAKER!

I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr F. J. Whittaker, of Devonport, Auckland, but I admire his sentiments regarding Germany and peace. In addressing a crowded meeting at the little seaside township the other evening, Mr Whittaker said: " Germany cries ' Peace !' —with a sword in one blood-stained hand and an olive branch in the other. She masquerades before the world with Peace on her lips, murder, hatred and revenge in her heart." The cheers and applause which greeted these words sufficiently testified to the way in which they went home to the hearts of all present.

NEW USES OF "MOVIES."

Mr Lilly, Chairman of the Auckland School Committee, suggests that moving pictures shall be utilised in the education of Auckland school children. It seems, according to this gentleman, that the idea is not a new one, having already been adopted in Nelson with success. It is certainly worthy a trial here, in this larger centre, and I am pleased to note that <Mr Lilly's suggestion has been approved, and will be actedXupon. This gentleman states that the Minister of a Free Church in London is advocating the illustration of sermons by means^ of films. Does not this rather suggest that the Church is hard pressed to attract people to attend services ? Certainly the " movie " nlight be employed in this way witn effect. The return of the Prodigaljp'onah and the whale, and many pother Bible stories would lend i&iemselves admirably to illustration by means of the animated picture.

THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE

Auckland merchants tell me that the dwellers in this Queen City of ours are likely to expert ence ere long some of the incon--veniences and discomfit long familiar to the people in England, so far as obtaining adequate supplies of articles usually considered essential go. Already we are short of patent-medicines (which we love, and consume enormous quantities of when we can get them). Bottled English ale and stout we have learned to do without. And now, it seems, we are threatened with a soap famine, and also a salt famine. English matches have long been practically unprocurable here,and the Jap. substitutes are both dear and of very indifferent quality. Treacle and golden syrup we may continue to get, but the time is rapidly approaching when those popular goods will not be retailed in tins, because tin will soon be almost as expensive as silver if the price keeps advancing. All this is bad enough— but worse remains behind. Stocks of tabacco are running out, and there seems little prospect of their being renewed at the time of writing. Non-smok-ers can afford to treat this matter with indifference, To smokers it is serious enough. The seasoned smoker would rather go short of "tucker" than short of 'baccy. I understand that no further rise in the price of tobacco is contemplated "at present." But you can take it from me that prices are bound to advance further in the not distant future, and it would not surprise me to find rates higher by 100 per cent if the war should unhappily be prolonged for another year.

THE RUN-AWAY GERMANS.

Writes my Wellington correspondent: \" The appearance presented by the four Huns who recently contrived to give their custodians the slip at Somes' Island when re^arrested was not exactly calculated to encourage their mates to go and do likewise. Four more woe-begone and miserable-looking beggars' you would not have encountered in a month of Sundays. They were jolly glad to be re-taken, I can tell you. The weather during the whole time the^ were in hiding—three days—was simply perishing. Without tucker, and also without clothing save that they stood up in^* they passed through an experience as they lay perdu, they, are not likely to forget in a Hurry. A.nd they never had the gihost of a chance of getting clpr of the Island, because they could not hope to break through the cordon of gentries su/rounding them. The Way i-i winch they 'wqlfed' the food placed before them after they were caught bore eloquent testimony to their famishing conditions. There are upwards of 300 Huns on the Island, and

when the news of the escape got about every man-jack of those Germans was grinning broadly. The joke, however, did not appear so excellent when the authorities suddenly made the regulations in force on the Island far more stringent than before, being determined, presumably, to show the prisoners th^^attempts at escape don't pay> -«T think it regrettable that no official enquiry is to be held touching the escape, because this is the second time, within a few days, that parties of Huns have tried to break away.

PRISON REFORM.

The question of prison reform is of interest not merely in Auckland but all over the Dominion. " Our prisons," says Sir Roeert Stout, " are not at present selfsupporting. Why should they not be self-supporting?" And then he offers a valuable suggestion : " Prisoners ought to be able to make farms pay. Suppose we gave them the buildings free and charged them a moderate rent for the farm proper, and credited them with the work done in improvements, and with some some thare of the profits on the sale of produce ? If there was a profit after all expenses were paid they should get credit for it. Were they made participators in the profits there would be a great incentive to work, to become efficient, and to be thrifty." That is a great scheme for the uplifting of fallen humanity. Fifty years ago in the English prisons (yes, and later than that), hard-labour men were put to the treadmill or the turning of useless iron cranks. Everything calculated to fill the prisoner with despair and to rob him of all self-respect was done. If you want to know what prison life was like in mid-Victorian days read "It is Never too Late to Mend," and contrast the treatment of prisoners described in that book with the wise and humane system just advocated by Sir Robert Stout.