AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 20 February 1919, Page 3

AUCKLAND HAPPENINGS.

[From Our Own Correspondent!

HIGHER WAGES WANTED.

The world-wide industrial unrest is beginning to affect Auckland, and this city is faced with the probability of more than one strike, failing the demands of the workers concerned being acceded to. Of course "the cost of living" is at the root qf the trouble. According to the very latest statistics it now requires a shade over 3Qs to purchase in Auckland necessaries of life which, in prewar (Jays, were obtainable for a sovereign. This unfortunate state of things, it seems, has been responsible for the workers' standard qf living having been reduced, So, :at least, it was stated at the Arbitration Court the other morning by the representative of the Auckland Bricklayers' Union, when applying for a higher rate of pay for bricklayers. I shant grudge the bricklayers more wages —if they can get it —or the drivers, or the tramwaymen, or any other body of workers. The cost of living has become outrageous. But " the poor working man " is not the only sufferer. There are thousands of tithers who toil not w.it'h their hands, but with their brains, and wh'o are compelled to dr.ess decently and '•'■ keep up. appearances," a.y, an.d ir\ many cases support wives and families an a ' weekly income that the " working man " would scorn. And these^brain-workers

have no "unions," no glib-tongued orators to voice their grievances and champion their cause. Ido not withhold my sympathy from " the working man" when it comes to the question of the cost of living. But Ido think he is rather given to monopolising the lime-light, and to overlook the fact that there are others who are hit quite as hard as himself yet say nothing.

THE COAL SHORTAGE

When the thermometer registers 90 or 100 in the sun, and the perspiration is trickling down your nose as you walk the streets you can afford to read the announcement in the papers that coal is scarce and only to be had a sackful at a time, with a good deal of philosophy. Personally you do not seem to care. What you do hanker after is a nice sandy beach and a plunge into the briny, or a shady nook in some pleasant garden, with a hammock and a long iced drink to keep you company. Three or four months from date the coal shortage, if it still exists, is much more likely to appeal to you. Some days in Auckland last winter were simply marrowfreezing. A coal famine under such circumstances, is fearful to contemplate. How comes it that coal is short at the present time ? If it is due to scarcity of miners that scarcity cannot be attributable to the low wages paid to these men, beoanse, I understand the hewers are making 30s a day at the game, and are, in fact, doing so well that many of them are content to work only halftime. Perhaps that is one reason why there is so little coal available? The Door working man !

THE PEACE CELEBRATIONS

I have been favoured with a sight of the draft programme of the proposed peace celebrations in Auckland, They are to extend, as you know, over three days, commencing on a Sunday with thanksgiving services in all the churches. On the second day it is suggested that a procession of returned soldiers and others shall march through the city to the Domain. Here speeches are to made and a military review held. After that lunchean, to which the orators and their friends, and the soldiers or some of them, are to sit down. After that military sports, and (probably) an open-air picture show, and an exhibition of horse-jumping. The third day is to be devoted to a children's fete, and on eaoh evening the city is to be illuminated. Bearing in mind the object of these celebrations, and they are designed to commemorate on© of the greatest events of the. world Jias ever known, I must oonfesfs that the foregoing programme strikes me as pretty thin, and that I consider the oocasion calls for something more imposing than moving pictures and horse-jump-ing, and speechifying by persons of no particular importance. If these things are considered good enough to mark the oonclusion of a triumphant peace and our deliverance from the menace that has hung over us for yeais, then I say why not add to the programme mapped out one or two other attractions, What's the matter with a baby-show an.d '*three shies a penny " at old Aunt Sally V —for example ?

RELICS OF THE PAST.

As I passed down Wellesley Street the other day, the unusual spectacle of a little crowd of people gathered about the entrance to the Old Colonists' Museum, in Kitchener Street, attracted my attention. The crowd. I discovered, was staring (after the manner of crowds) at two objects, one b,eing a big iron pot, and the other a large cannon, and py this time both these things are snugly housed within the museum. Tho cannon, it seems, dates back to 1831, when it formed part of New Zealand's defences, and up to within two or three years ago it was fired off every New Year's Day. The iron pot formerly formed part of the outfit of a whaling ship and was used for "trying out" blubber. Later it was traded off to the guileless natives of Hokianga —for what do you think ? For 1000 acres of land ! I wonder who owns that land now ? It would also be interesting how much of New Zealand was bartered away by the Maoris in those "early days" for articles as valuable as, this ugly old iron pot whioh Gould not originally have been worth more than perhaps a sovereign ? I am afraid " the heathen in his blindness " made. sQm,e pretty bad bargains in days gone by.