AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 7 November 1918, Page 2

AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

[From Our Own Correspondent]. Auckland, Nov. 3. THE INFLUENZA OUTBREAK Notwithstanding all reports jgdte; the contrary there is no douD^? that the present outbreak of influenza in Auckland is an unprecedentediy serious one. I am told that a good many deaths have occurred at the local hospital to date, from this cause, although little has been said : about it. It is true that the complaint is in a!mild form. But unless it is promptly dealt with in each case dangerous com* plications are very liable to occur ; and pneumonia, bronchitis and other serious complaints may supervene. It is no exaggeration to say that hundreds of persons resident in Auckland and its suburbs are suffering to-day from influenza or its after-effects. The best and safest plan for anyone who is attacked is to go to bed at once, and stay there until the danger period is over. As a well-known medical man puts it: "A person who does not lay up with an attack of influenza is not only acting foolishly in the interests of his or her health, but /becomes a menace to everyone else."

LABOUR DAY, As luck would have it Labour Day proved gloriously fine —and gloriously fine days have been few and far between of late, and indeed for weeks past. One ' depression " has been followed by another so quickly that we have hardly had time to get dry before the rain has been on us again. The stormy and backward Spring, with its chill winds and almost incessant rains is proving very bad for trade. The drapers' shop windows are full of summer raiment, but gauzy blouses and dress goods are not so much in request just now as raincoats and furs. But to return , to Labour Day. Tempted by the bright sunshine and the blue skies thousands went a picnicing-. to the country or the seaside, and the city was almost deserted save by the men whose only idea of spending a holiday is to spend it at the hotel bars and to whom beer appeals more strongly than the finest scenery in the world. THE HANDBAG AND THE LADY. Findings are not always keepings, as Amy Rigby and Ernest James are just now sadly realising. Amy and Ernest visited the waiting-room at Devonport the other afternoon, and there found a lady's handbag. The bag they discovered contained £6 10s in cash, and an annual ferry-ticket. They divided the " find," and were leaving the waiting-room when the owner of the bag, an elderly lady, met them at the door. She had been sitting in the waiting-room and had left her bag behind her. Missing it she returned to look for it. She inquired of Amy and Ernest whether they had seen the bag, but they both said "No." On being confronted with a policeman, however, they recollected they had seen it. Amy* had popped the bag inside her blouse. Each of the accused was fined £10, or two months. It was an unlucky find! By the way nearly everyone who finds anything keeps it as a matter of course. Sometimes (if the owner can be discovered) the article, whatever it is, is returned. Otherwise it is usually retained by the finder. But to keep anything you ma> happen to |find is a risky proceeding, and may land you in serious trouble, if the find is traced to your possession. It should be handed over to the police at once. "A DIRTY RAG." " The British flag is a dirty rag and not worth fighting for" For uttering those words Henry ¥ al°' ,fornie rly on the teaching staff of the Auckland Technical College, was fined, in April last, £25. Last week he applied for a le-hearing of the case. The grounds for the application were stated to be that new and material evidence had been discovered since the conviction. After listening to all that accused's counsel-had to say, Mr Mosley, said: lam satisfied that nothing has been been brought forward to make me alter my judgment one ioto." The an t^ 1?? was J t.iierefore dismissed. l M u Ma^° d, ld make the remark attributed to him-of which there seems little doubt-I think he got off very easily. What do you think? Britishers never had more reason to be proud of their flag than they have to-day