Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/58

 me rather unusual. From the top of a mountain in this park, we could see across New Zealand. The country is nearly a thousand miles long, and has an average width of one hundred and fifty miles, but at Auckland the width is only seven miles. The city will soon extend across the isthmus, and there is already talk of digging a canal Auckland is accustomed to giving. One of the hadsomest and largest structures here is a Y. M. C. A. building, and near it is a Y. W. C. A. building. The campaign in which the money was raised for these two buildings must have been a strenuous one Workingmen's clubs are common here. I have often wondered that we do not see them in the United States A few days ago, the New Zealand Press Association, which answers to our Associated Press, sent out a telegram which offended labor-union men. Thereupon the firemen in an Auckland ferry service went on strike, and greatly inconvenienced the public. The firemen had no quarrel with their employers, but quit work because their dignity had been offended by the newspapers. The newspapers of Australia and New Zealand criticise the labor unions much more freely than do the newspapers of the United States. Here business houses are compelled by law to close on certain days, and the workingmen have become so powerful that they have divided into two parties, and are fighting each other. Many New-Zealanders have told me that the big fight is yet to come, and that this fight will be between the people and the labor unions I went into a meat market today, and inquired prices. A rib roast of beef costs twelve cents a pound; a sirloin roast, four