AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 23 January 1919, Page 3

AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

fP»OM Ou* Own Cokrespowdmitl

AUCKLAND TO WELLINGTON BY AIR-SHIP.

jfc The offer made by the Hon. "A. M. Myer& of £100 as the nucleus of a prize for a flight from Auckland to Wellington is naturally exciting a lot of interest in this cityt The conditions are, as you are probably £. aware, that the trip must be 1 accomplished in one day, two stops to be allowed en route. The Kohi Flying School are hopeful of annexing the prize. The " fly " will be made in three stages, and the actual distance covered will be about 400 miles. [ Well, assuming that the journey occupies about 12 hours that will only mean 33 or 34 miles an hour. Given the right weather conditions, the right machine and the right man, there should be no difficulty about that. The time will undoubtedly come when the Auckland-Wellington will be done in four or five hours, and the day will dawn, also, ' when, owing to improved methods of manufacture, flying ships will be turned out at such a rate that they will be as cheap as motor-cars now are, and every well-to-do citizen will own his

own '' flyer."

GERMAN TOYS.

Toy-dealers in this city say that the trade in toys at Xraas time was exceptionally brisk. But German toys were not in evidence in any of the shops, and a well-known Auckland toymerchant declares : "So far sis most of us are concerned, I can safely say no more German toys or goods Will be seen in this city for a very long time to come." So far so,good. But these goods should never be seen here again, or be allowed to enter New Zealand again. Formerly Germany supplied the^ bulk of the toys for the world's 'markets. But they are no longer wanted. English, American and Japanese toys are quit© as attractive as those manufactured in Hun-land. Apropos of this an Auckland dealer showed me during Xmas Week a quantity of toys made by returned soldiers in England, and which for quality and price , compared very favourably with the things formerly imported from Germany. Our New Zealand women' should follow the example of the women of America who are firmly determined to boycott, permanently, all German-made (goods, and propose, especially, tc guard against their children ever again playing with toy-soldiers made by the baby-killefs of Germany. There is, 1 believe, an antiGerman League of Women in Wellington, and another in ... Auckland, pledged to keep out floods of make, but I have not heard, for some time, . what these ladies are doing. Now is the time they should be getting busy. HE FELL IN. How to make money without working for it is a problem that a good many people appear anxious to solve. "Geo. Heighway experimented in that direction the other day—with unfortunate results. It seems that George had a small account at the P.O. Savings Bank, and, while " under the influence," decided to draw the last of his savings, amounting to ten shillings. But Owing to a mistake he was handed £4. Before the error was detected George was away. He asked a Salvationist to keep £1 for him, opened an account at another Bank with another £2, and was jingling thirty-seven and, fourpence in his breeches' pocket when a detective who had been " put wise," accosted him. George told the Magistrate that it was all a mistake, and that he ; " didn't notice it at the time," The mistake cost him three months of his liberty. * CHANGE FOR jg^ HALF-A-CROWN. PE^' A suburban resident taking a :4 stroll late the other Sunday afternoon met a shabbily dressed stranger who stopped him to ask, with an engaging smile: "Could ' A you oblige me with change for °half-a-crown ? I have walked in frpm the country, a distance of t five miles, in order to attend Church this evening, and I have -'v but this .half-crown. But I can't afford to put so much as that in the collection-plate. The man accosted searched all his pockets and was at last able to find the desired change. Next day he discovered that the half-crown was a "wrong un " !