The city is well supplied with parks; also a splendid museum and an art gallery are among the assets of that busy, far-off place. Auckland's street car system is the only one privately owned in New Zealand. Unlike Melbourne's, though, it is fast and modern.
The winter climate of Auckland proves a magnet to those living in colder parts of the Dominion. It is semi-tropical and has an invigorating atmosphere.
The dwellings are mostly frame-built, two stories high, and from $15 to $20 a month rent is charged. Wages do not exceed $3 a day for mechanics and $2 a day for laborers. Meat, on the other hand, is reasonable, ranging in price from 6 to 12 cents a pound.
Servant girls have a union in New Zealand, and their wages run from $4 to $5 a week. After quitting time, the lady of the house must finish any work that has not been completed. A smart New Zealand girl does the work of three African house servants.
The degrading occupation of barmaid was noticeable in New Zealand, as in most British colonies. But that kind of work for women will gradually come to an end in the Island Dominion, as an act was passed forbidding saloonkeepers hiring barmaids. Those that were engaged at that work when the act was passed were allowed to remain, but when a barmaid leaves the proprietor must fill the vacancy with a man. As temperance has gained a strong foothold, it is not likely that, in the near future, there will be work of that sort for either women or men.
Punishment by lashes for certain offenses committed by men is a law of New Zealand, the number administered being from one to fifty.
All the inhabitants of Australasia are tea drinkers—tea for breakfast, tea for luncheon, and tea for dinner. Mutton and lamb chops are the meat standbys.
The government has sadly neglected Auckland in public buildings. For a lively business place, and the largest city in the Dominion, the railway station was a disgrace; it was little better than the one at Wellington, but this comparison adds nothing to the Auckland Station.
When the American fleet visited New Zealand, the sailors took a fancy to blankets made in that country, and before they left the hospitable shores of the Dominion every blanket in stock had been bought. The visit of the United States battleships here some years ago proved an epoch-making event.
New Zealanders are very patriotic, but often, when they have visited Australian cities and rested their eyes on the splendid buildings and grand parks there, and quaffed a few draughts of metropolitan air that pervades some centers of that country, they are in no hurry to return. New Zealand is the best place in the world until the New Zealander visits Australia.