THE CLEARING HOUSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 856, 27 December 1929, Page 10

THE CLEARING HOUSE

PEOPLES OF THE WORLD MEET IN AUCKLAND A COSMOPOLITAN CITY Auckland, just now, is a clearinghouse for people from all parts o!i the world. In every hotel, crowded to the last bed and In some instances to last "shakedown,” there are people from every corner of the British Empire as well as tourists and travellers from foreign countries. Both at dinner and afterward in the lounges one may meet interesting people and gather Impressions of how the world is faring—politically, socially and industrially. New Zealanders naturally predominate, for a large percentage of residents of the Dominion seem to have flocked to the North for the holiday season. Many of them are racing enthusiasts and the talk tui-ns to horses and farming interests. Here is a squatter from the Wairarapa talking wool and thoroughbred sheep with a Canterbury man. There is a racehorse owner from Wanganui chatting to a friend from Riverton. A round of the hotels shows that almost every town or district in New Zealand has a representative In Auckland and each Is keen to know, how the other man is doing. Casual meetings in hotels give the average New Zealander an excellent impression of his own country.

Some theatrical artists from England are making their first notes of the Dominion and enjoying the experience. They are home again, they will tell you. Even the mist which falls with depressing persistence cannot damp their ardour. A man from Colombo who is interested in tea is exchanging experiences with a citrus fruitgrower from sunny California. Their interests are more or less similar and Christmas has brought them together In far away New Zealand. A Canadian fisherman, who is sampling the sport of New Zealand streams for the first time, is relating with evident relish his adventures at Taupo and Rotorua. He can tell the New Zealander he has met more sport In the Dominion than that man ever dreamed of.

A London group has been drawn together In one corner of a lounge and discusses the day’s racing. Almost like Epsom or Newmarket, and in many ways more beautiful, they are confiding to each other, for yesterday Ellerslie, sprinkled with warm rain overnight, glowed to perfection. A politician from Los Angeles has an interested listener in a New Zealand ex-M.P. Theatre people from Australia are commenting on Auckland’s entertainment houses and cabarets, but the spirit of the season has dissipated any spirit of criticism which might otherwise have intruded Itself.

Conditions in Switzerland, told by a man from Geneva, find a ready listener in a manufacturer from the North of England. Any details of Singapore, its naval base and its trade, can be gathered from a shipping man who is spending a holiday in Auckland.

There is a good sprinkling of traders and planters from the islands of the Pacific, and the conversation turns to the peace and quiet of Auckland after the hurricane season they have experienced. A tourist from the north of Scotland haf found a countryman from Otago. France is there, represented by a man from Rouen. He is talking with some people who have just returned from Shanghai, which, they will tell you, is more gay today than even Paris or Berlin.

Two dancing folk are retailing reminiscences of their days on the Riviera and the night-life of that everchanging, pleasure-loving community. So hotel life goes on—changing every day. People gain swift but lasting impressions of life abroad and at home. The world grows smaller for these brief talks, which probably lure the New Zealander to other lands and the foreigner to make another visit. And on Sunday the cosmopolitan atmosphere will be still more marked, for the Aorangi and the Rangitata will bring more overseas people to these shores either for pleasure or for business.