Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 95, 13 July 1927, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

A POLL FOR ORAKEI Sir,— The By-laws Committee of the City Council recommended on Thursday ; evening that, notwithstanding the reso- : lution on the subject, the council should agree to accept the Tamaki Road District from October 1 next. Well might Mr. S. I. Crookes and others object to such a procedure. The ] City Council must keep faith with the < parties involved, which would be impossible if it rescinded or amended the 1 resolution in question at this juncture. The question of amalgamation is not a moral one, though moral issues will arise if it is not handled with | clean hands. Orakei is justly entitled to a poll on this question. If this is denied, the last trouble will be worse than the first. When a poll is taken in Orakei (if ever) I hope the residents will take time to go thoroughly into the. question, as has not yet been done. There are natural limits to efficient administration of town districts. These vary with topography and other circumstances. To include Avondale and Tamaki in one district, as some propose, is simply preposterous. The City Council would need to divide itself into district branches, each with administrative authority, to cope efficiently with such an area. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. A CLUB FOR “AUSSIES” Sir, — I am a lonely Australian, forced by circumstances to live away from my sunny country for a time, or perhaps for ever. I have come across several people like myself, and we all feel that there ought to be an Australian Club in Auckland, and all other large centres in New Zealand where “Aussies” can meet and have a good time together now and again. If we could only rent a room, with a piano, and every lady member give something feminine to beautify that room, and, every man a piece of furniture, it would help in some way to make a real Australian patch over here, with such an air of home that we would all feel: “This little bit of the world belongs to me,” as we neared the door for our social gatherings. So many lonely Australians over here think as I do about a club or clubs in New Zealand, yet none of us know just how to go about things or what to do in the matter. So I thought that if you would be good enough to publish this short article for me. in a widely-read paper like THE SUN that any one wishing to help would perhaps send in his name and address to me, and we could then get in touch with each other and arrange to pay a small fee, say Is 6d, have an afternoon tea at John Court’s, and talk matters over on the roof garden afterwards, if the weather ever fines up, and I feel sure that a club for Australians would be the outcome of the gathering, with furnishings of yellow, and wattle blossoms with our coat of arms over the door. Write to “WARATAH,” SUN Office. MT. ALBERT BOROUGH COUNCIL Sir, I observe that it is the intention of the Mount Albert Borough Council to increase our already overburdened rates. This, Sir, is a breach of faith on the part of our Mayor, as previous to the loan proposals recently carried he —possibly to secure a successful poll of the ratepayers—told us that our rates would not be increased. Is this increase of rates a prelude to the new system of rating on unimproved value? When we consider the administrative expenses of our Mayor, town clerk, borough engineer, assistant engineer, traffic and assistant inspector, build-

ing inspector and inspector of ] nuisances, “et hoc genus omne,” one ■ shudders at the outcome. I think it time to call a halt, as the affairs of j this borough will not compare with any of the surrounding local bodies in ■ Auckland. Trusting this protest will ! have the desired effect. ARGUS. (“When placing the 1926 loan proposals before the ratepayers, I gave a schedule of the estimated increases in rates from year to year, as the result of the expenditure of this particular loan,” said Mr , K - Rhodes, Mayor of Mount Albert borough, referring to the substance of Argus s letter. “The loan rates being charge_d this current Year are for works carried out before the 1926 loan oroposals were placed before the ratepayers The general rate last year, as a matter of fact, was actually reduced from three -f»rthings, and is being reduced this year to three-fifths of a Fu nn ? * • . This council took no part in the bringing about of rating on unim- • pioved -values, but when the system comes . Ol * eratlon uext year a read.jnstfnent of rates will naturally take place. as far as our staff is concerned, all our 1 officers have been more or less over- • worked for some time past.”—Ed., THE THE BOYNE Sir,— I have read Sir William Wilde’s great work on the Blackwater and the Boyne' also Mr. M. J. McCairn’s account of the historic battle. These authors agree with Story, Williams’s chaplain, that the victory was incomplete. The immediate gains were that William’s army had crossed the Boyne, but he had not captured a single gun, and scarcely a standard, to proclaim his victory. Besides, the Irish army made an orderly retreat, and made up for their losses by soundly beating their foes at Athlone and Limerick. From the latter place King William, enraged because his soldiers refused to fight, fled with all haste to Waterford, where he took ship for England. Sarsfield’s great ride along the Shannon, and his destruction of the great siege train, with its battering rams, guns, etc., was the climax of this historic light at Limerick. Why do I mention these matters? Is it to arouse bitter feelings? God forbid! A new era of peace is about to dawn for the descendants of these people. In Empire Week at Belfast the Free State Flag waved in unison with the other flags of the Commonwealth over the city hall. Old Father Time has taken a long time to heal the wounds on both sides, and to-day we can truly say, in the words of the poet: Let the Orange lily be Your badge, my Ulster brother; The everlasting green for me— And we both for one another. CLAN COXAL. THE ATTRACTIONS OF AUSTRALIA Sir. Why is it that the Australians over here do not form a club, and invite New Zealanders there to tell them of the thousands of valuable acres of land lying idle in the Commonwealth. So many New Zealand people are longing for escape from wet and damp and mud and cold, and are discontented and unhappy. I have realised this on several occasions lately when I have taken journeys into the country and I longed to help my fellow-men t>y telling them of the Dawson Valley and Murrimbigee irrigation schemes, and ; all about Queensland, where land is rented at Jd an acre and so on, but fearing to get tangled up when it came to how many sheep or cattle could be carried to the acre, I said little, but , listened intently to the grumbling and the tale of the hardships which had

5 ========== ==== i - . f to be faced to make a Mdn* . dairying and to procure ( ' h ; ldr€ n - necessities for wives an an titiesJ® i land which required euch “ in ort' 1 manure and carried b fine liari" 1 gages. If only some ottbeee™ t 0 . working fellows would Brisbane I Queensland Tourist Office, flirts . and Tourist Bureau, Syd me 1 trated booklets and inf I(P 1 all kinds of farming in An- , g 0 „«r 3 sure that they would at 'e» tW t and spy the land after 3 literature asked for. arffi w v« 3 pack up and trek, even If tn and t heard, too. of droughts and 3 ants and mosquitoes and so AL -gglE.