AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 19 December 1918, Page 3

AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

[From Ou* Own Comespohdwtt]. Auckland, Dec. 14. HIS LAST DAYS IN AUCKLANDI The Hon. G. W. Russell is reported to have said that he hoped to spend his last days in Auckland. But that was before the influenza epidemic in this city. Whether Mr Russell still cherishes the hope of passing the evening of his existence in Auckland is, I should say, in the light of recent happenings, problematical, One thing is tolerably certain, however, and that is if the present Minister for Public Health were to pay another visit to our " Queen City " just now he would be likely to meet with a very warm reception. Public sympathy here is all with Mr Gunson, and if justice is not done to that gentleman in the matter of the now notorious telegram, then, to paraphrase the old song, " Fifty thousand Auckland men will know the reason why." THE SLUM QUESTION. Slums, unhappily, we certainly have in Auckland, there is no gainsaying that. But to hold Mr Gunson responsible for their existence is as absurd as it would be to blame the Lord Mayor of London for the slums ofi the greatest city in the world. But if we have our slums so —unfortunately—have other centres of the Dominion, How, for instance, about Wellington ? Did you read the story of the man found lying on the floor of a tumble-down house in a Wellington slum and who was obliged to keep a whip handy in order to keep off the rats V Well, I don't think we have anything quite as bad as that in Auckland. But things are quite bad enough here. There are a great many Chinamen and not a few Assyrians and Indians resident in this city. And the ways of these men are not always engaging. I have no particular fault to find with Chinamen as citizens. They are inoffensive enough, as a rule, and give comparatively little trouble. But I think it would be well if some of the houses in which these men live, or congregate, were pulled down, or better still, made bonfires of. As for the Assyrians, did it not come out, in the published statement of one of our slum-workers during the epidemic, that four of these chaps were in the habit of performing their ablutions—when they did perform them —in a teacupful of water ? Ah, well, let us hope the new-found zeal of our civic rulers may last, and that the days of our slums are numbered. HOME-MADE LIQUORS. So it appears from a statement made by the Rt. Hon. Mr Massey (writes my Wellington colleague) that if National Prohibition is carried such prohibition is not to extend to the making of wines or other alcoholic beverages in the homes of the people, provided sucli beverages are not offered for sale. In that case it will be every man his own brewer, cordial maker, and wine manufacturer. And depend upon it, if people are barred from buying intoxicants they will freely avail themselves of the liberty to make intoxicants for their own drinking. Well, that will only be reverting to the old order of things, A hundred years ago or more, almost every housewife made her own sloe-gin, or other cordial, also her own wine of some sort or other, and every country squire made his own home-brewed. If Prohibition comes depend upon it the art of wine-making and of the making of home-brewed will be revived. And why not?—the making of wine and ale are simple processes enough. Excellent wine can be produced from parsnips, carrots, —and even potatoes- Good sound beer can be brewed in the back-kitchen. All you want is— but I'll say no more lest some of your readers should be tempted to try their hands at these homemade beverages right away, and I I should incur the wrath of Isitt and Co. THE GERMAN DOCTOR, The temporary liberation from Motuihi of Dr. Eudletsberger, in order that he might proceed to Rotorua to attend a resident of that place professionally, has occasioned a tremendous amount of _ talk in Auokland, where the opinion of that übiquitous person " the man in the street " seems to be that the authorities acted very improperly in letting Eudletshor^flr away from the internment camp for even a single day, One critic of the Government in this

matter puts the case very forcibly when he says : "It is considered unpatriotic to buy goods made in Germany, and it seems equally unpatriotic to employ German, doctors instead of our own." Well, that seems to me to be hitting the right nail on the head. If an interned German is allowed to go free to pay a professional visit, why should not the other Germans who are interned, and some of whom may be members of other callings, not be allowed their liberty, temporarily, in order to do special professional work ? I may be told that this was a case of urgency. Perhaps it was. But surely there are sufficient of our own doctors in Auckland, if not in Rotorua, who are quite as capable as this German doctor ? It was, to say the least, establish- i ing a bad precedent,

HOW TO MAKE MONEY. A few days ago an Auckland business man received a letter from an Australian firm of "next-of-kin" hunters advising him that a person bearing the same surname as himself had died leaving a sum of money which was unclaimed, and had been advertised as unclaimed. The letter concluded by saying that if the Aucklander' would send the writer a P.O. order for £1 a copy of the alluring advertisement re" ferring to the unclaimed cash would be forwarded to him, together with the name and date of the newspaper in which the advertisement appeared. This appears to be a fairly easy method of making money. Suppose the name of the party leaving the unclaimed money happened to be Smith or Jones, or Brown, or Robinoon, and suppose every Smith, Jones, Brown, and Robinson written to sent along £1 to the next-of-kin people ? Why, its a heap safer than backing horses !