Denis Glover
October 25th 2011 20:06
A quote on pre-war Auckland from Denis Glover, NZ poet - though not from one of his poems. I'm not sure if things have changed much.
If there is one extraordinary blot on the landscape of New Zealand, let me tell you
it is Auckland: a vast collection of extinct volcanoes, in those days tastefully linked by tramlines. Auckland is a conglomerate of small villages sparwling over easy-sleazy country, each of them a terminus of ill-built shops, mostly the milk-bar variety, and always with some kind of poor-denomination church prominently facing a good highway, with exalting posters of the 'Come in and have your Faith lifted' type. Auckland in its conceit and its indolence is far worse than any other part of New Zelaand. Untypical, even when they speak English.
Aucklanders honestly consider they are New Zealand. Even such a man as Fairburn had never set eyes on the South Island until he was well into his forties. Other firends of mine said, 'Ive never seen snow except in the refrigerating apparatus of an overseas ship.' Aucklanders do not move out of Auckland, and indeed the climate is so muggy and they are so homogeneous that one can well understnad why they don't.
This is from Hot Water Sailor and Landlubber Ho!, published in Wellington, 1981, pages 115-6. Painting of Denis Glover by Leo Bensemann
If there is one extraordinary blot on the landscape of New Zealand, let me tell you
Aucklanders honestly consider they are New Zealand. Even such a man as Fairburn had never set eyes on the South Island until he was well into his forties. Other firends of mine said, 'Ive never seen snow except in the refrigerating apparatus of an overseas ship.' Aucklanders do not move out of Auckland, and indeed the climate is so muggy and they are so homogeneous that one can well understnad why they don't.
This is from Hot Water Sailor and Landlubber Ho!, published in Wellington, 1981, pages 115-6. Painting of Denis Glover by Leo Bensemann
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