CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 61, 11 March 1916, Page 11

CORRESPONDENCE.

AN6WEBS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A.G.Y.—(I). We arc trying to obtain the information. (2). The Brisbane is the name of a light cruiser in the Australian Navy- She is now being completed. CONSTANT READERS.—-"Sabotage" is a French term applied to damage deliberately done to an employer's property by -workmen. GRADUATE. — A summary of your letter was published in "Condensed Correspondence" on March 4th. A BRITISHER.—Such statements cannot be published anonymously. CIVIL SERVANTS. (To tlio Editor.) Sir —It would have been a brave man who/before the war, would have domed that this little island of ours was no: the best spot on this planet; m fact, "God's Own Country," in which »a» plenty for all and to spare, work for a at good wages and a bit over, health and recreation, free education in primary and high schools and colleges, ami many other blessings and advantages, open to all, not excepting our climate All this existed with our hosts of Civil seivants, and we will freely admit that since the war necessarily there must be a considerable addition to their ranks. Judging by the writer who gave us the figures/and also by your leader, the fact of co many being employed by the State was to be deplored. But why so. In speaking of the " State " most people look on it as if it was a separate ' en-

ity" something apart and aloof from t .he great mass of the people. Now, is it d 10 t much nearer the truth to put it fl ,hus: The people employ a huge num- g uer of themselves to carry out tue g necessary work of railways, post anil 5 telegraph offices, insurance, education, { and public works of all kinds. The ? peoplo find all the money to finance.the-ie ( undertakings, and on the whole manage , them very successfully. The plea is then put forward that if these services w«rf , in any way largely extended that we would" eventually become a lot of slaves, to be simply kept in check and ordered ( about by an increasingly large number; of officials. It does not at all follow. If there is any fact more palpable at the present moment it is the one that the people as a whole will have an ever increasing say in what is for their best interests. Facts have been brought home to them in latter days with a force as never before, and I feel quite confident that as the situations arise their common sense will always find the solution needed even to go on further and fnrther extending the principle to do things for themselves. —I am, etc., FORWARD. ARE WE BECOMING A RACE OF DEGENERATES? (To the Editor.) Sir.—The human body is capable of withstanding almost unlimited ill-uae and abuse. It is shut away ironi air and sunshine; and its movements arc curtailed by clothing. It grows up like a plant in "a dark corner. Naturally its growth is stunted. It often becomes [jalc and weak and effeminate. Frequently it might literally be termed a mislit. And this we have the temerity to call God's image! And yet, many of us are ashamed of the image. Many of us are aroused by erotic imaginings from the mere thought of the outlines of the human form. Is there anything low or degrading in a beautifully-formed human body? Study the outlines of Apollo or Hermes? Note the symmetry and strength of the sculptured form of Venus, l≤ there anything in these beautiful figures that would arouse the baser nature of mankind? Li fact, should not these marvellous presentations of health and beauty inspire , , us with the desire to possess like characteristics?

These remarks arc suggested by statements made in their letters by some of your correspondents with reference tv siiD-bathing at Tiikapuna. One writer actually statee that 6un-batbers would not exhibit their bodies unless they hail fine figures and muscles to show! Then: was a time when to laugh and be happy was a sign of depravity, while to be sad and miserable was proof of piety. These good people would probably see nothing wrong in exhibiting a deformed or diseased body. Who has made the human form a shameless thing? Who is to blame for the vile thoughts that are said to run riot from the mere exposure of the outlines of the human form? Are not these results due to the prurient prudery of to-day? In accepting the statements of the prude, are we not becoming a race of degenerates? The pictures painted by the prude are continually before our imagination. Boys and girls grow up under the influence of this perverted imagination. The body has become to them a shameful thing. Let us cover the body. 1 am not advocating thet we go naked. But let us look upon the body, not as a thing shameful, but as something sacred. Let us teach children to revere this wonderful masterpiece of human flesh. But we must eliminate absolutely that diabolical policy of making them ashamed ot their bodies. Clothing should be worn, not because we are ashamed of our bodies, but because we revere them. Xakedness should not be associated with impurities and immoralities, but instead with purity and virtue. The fact is well known to all explorers that the mere clothing the leas virtue.—l am etc.. M.W. '

CLOSING THE SCHOOLS. (To tie Editor.) Sir,—As a parent, I quite agree witli other correspondents that it is absurd to close the public schools, and thus encourage thousands of children to run about in the eun, and many of them to wander the dusty and dirty streets. It has not been proved that infantile paralysis is contracts' or spread in the schools. Many of tl, . who have contracted the disease arc under or over school age. As a. matter of fact, the hesjrfch fturtkoritijes <ljo fciot know the cause. I would 1 just as soon believe tha; it is a form of sunstroke as anything else. In the meantime, children aro lesing education and discipline, and teachers drawing their full salaries as usual, after the ordinary six or seven weeks' holiday at Christmas.—l am, etc., A.H.B. DESERTION OF SEAMEX. (To tlie Editor.) Sir, —A recent case has called public attention to the inconvenience caused by seamen deserting their ships. The union has always striven to see that any vessel leaving port had no trouble in securing a crew. In the recent case, the union officials did their utmost to persuade hands to take the ship a/way, but without success, tio far aa I can ascertain the trouble started by three cooks pulling out at the last moment, and the infection 6ecms to have spread to the Stokehold. The whole cause "was the inadequate sanitary arrangements, and 6onie of the buckets available for the stokehold hands bore the Government broad arrow. Other vessels in harbour at the same time had no difficulty in securing crews on lees favourable runs. When, the case came 'before the S.M. he expressed the opinion that the Seamen's Union had power to enforce proper sanitary conditions. Apparently he was entirely ignorant of the fact that the ship in question was registered in Australia, and running under an intercolonial certificate, and therefore not amenable to the New Zealand la/ws in thi6 respect.

So far as absence without leave is concerned' the question ha 3 been thrashed cut in most countries. In the early 70's n ' Sir William Harcourt (late leader of the a House of Commons) declared that the & penal clauses of the Merchant Shipping a Arts were equal in severity to the Game i Laws, where a man got a free trip to n Australia for shooting a hare or rabbit. 1 ' For years, according to United .States v [ law, a seaman who was absent from hi| Jveseel on the coast of North Ameritti ' or Mexico was not liable to imprison- 1 ! ment, and on March 4th, 1!»15, an Act, < ; popularly known as the "La I'olletle t J Act" was passed by Congress entirely ! abolishing imprieonnicnt for desertion I or absence without leave in foreign , ports or the United States Coast. It . " also abrogates treaties under which sea- ' I men deserting from foreign vessels in j

the United States could be arrested ior desertion—so that after .June 4th, 1910, ? a seaman on a New Zealand-owned vcs- , scl in San Francisco or New York; or a j seaman on an American-owned vessel in 1 Sydney or Auckland is emancipated from involuntary servitude, and has the j right of personal liberty granted to hint. ( and the only penalty- is -forfeiture of wages and effects. A Royal Commission on the Navigation Bill in Australia, over which tinpresent Prime Minister (W. M. Hughes) presided, in 1005-C recommended the abolition of imprisonment for desertion in respect of—(1) All desertions in Australia from any vessels; (2a) desertions abroad from ships registered in the Commonwealth; (2b) desertion abroad from ships continuously trading to any port in the Commonwealth, and whose final port of discharge of crew is in the Commonwealth. In the case under review the culprit had already done a 28-day sentence by order of tho Marine Department under section 2G of the 1000 Act, and immediately on the expiration of this "perish he- is arrested and sentenced to 21 daj'3' hard labour with no option. That was on Saturday last, and when the Union took the case up on Monday and had it re-opened the sentence wns cancelled, and the offender discharged. 'Why the police waited until his first term was completed and then arrested him 60 that hp should be punished a second time for the same offence required some explanation. The police also commandeered 2/t> out of the few shillings be possessed for a "joy-ride" to the lock-up.

The illegal imprisonment of this man is still sub judice, but I venture to ask what Ncill's fate would have been if he hod been so dilatory in keeping up a head of steam as the magistrate was in interpreting our statutes.

It has taken us some ttme to establish our position, and no draconic homilies from the Bench will convince our members that they are compelled to work under insanitary conditions. It is a pity that some of our sub-inspectors and magistrates cannot be made to take a trip round the Islands, with the thermometer from 150 to 160 in the shade in the etokehold. 1 am sure on" trip would bring them in full sympathy with the firemen.

Tlie least that could have been done! on .Monday last was for the Bench to have apologised for inflicting an ultravires sentence, and a stupi.l homily on the wrongs of lvickpd firemen.—T am I Pt0 -> J, H. KNEEX, '! Secretary Federated Seamen's Union. ! — i CX)XDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. ' i Edward 0. Boden replies to C. H. | Ralph on national decadence. He contends that there has been no decadence, but that there has been improvement in ethical conditions, and accuses tlu Church of having hindered humanitarian progress. A good deal of evidence, such as the punishments inflicted by th-> Church and the barbarities of the old penal code, is cited in support of his contentions. "But, sad as it all is, where are the proofs of such decadence? Iβ it to be found in the moral sense of modern humanitarian thought and action? The improved conditions of our working claseee give the question a negative answer. Never before has the spirit of benevolence and justice been so apparent. Never before civic virtues BO well recognised by the community as in our time, and , those be it observed are not the fruita of spiritual yearning?, of 'higher religious thought. They are the results of education and 6cientiflc knowledge. The science of physiology has taught iis to care for all sentient life. Logic and moral philosophy have instructed Uβ in the prraeiplee of culture and tended to refine and rationalise the race. Let us cense these doleful howlings. National decadence is nowhere apparent, raWier is its manhood viiiUs ami ats womanhood a. flower for good."

"Wet" complains that his water meter registered 43,000 gallons for six months ajid ten days, for a small family, with practically no watering of the garden. He should lay his complaint before hie borough council." "Banra. Foetus" sends a long letter in reply to "Shane O'Uala's" letter on Archbishop Carr and the drink question. This letter tb mostly taken up with figures, which he says prove that denominational religious instruction doe 9 not tend to decrease crime. A discussion on the question seems to us outside the scope of "Shane ODala's" letter.

"Bara Foetus" ecnde a final reply to Ill's opponents in the conscription controversy. He says: "The great problem at issue is, shall Gorman arms or British humanising influences prevail? I cheerfully recognise that to many the decay or abolition of the volunteer movement must seem a mournful process, fraught with dire omen for the future welfare of national solvency ami ■universal peace. The heart of my critics ia with the past, and their intellect warped by the deep conviction | that the happiness of mankind is in- I separably inter woven with peace systems which 'have been dominant under British rule for so many centuries. But there is a positive a.s well as a negative side to the process that disturb* my friends' sentimentalietic minds with *o much alarm. The decay of voluntaryism is the result of knowledge and the growth and development of reason. Men are turning with universal disgust i from the chimeras of frjesilieiition to the more attractive and certain methods ! iissuring victory. Illumined with tiie light of patriotism, and (flowing with an ever-expanding force of Umpire, the i enrichment of our race by humanitarian) j \ersue German barbarism, they are dc- | tarmiued to conquer or to die. Towards \ tho happy future under special con scriptiou we look with faith and hope. Voluntary systems may and will perish, but humanity will survive, and will—spite of all opposition—work out its savation from ignorance and wrong, though modern thought, which under conscription for the time being bids us be cheerful under the wondrous force of human self-sacrifice and love."

A correspondent who save his children have attended school in New Zealand and the Old' Country, and Ikis served on school committees, declares that, in regard to come teachers the standard in the Auckland district would not etand very much lowering. Some teachers, he says, l-old their positions for long period.-, without taking their examinations, but he acknowledges that he has met eoiiie "very line specimen's" among teachers. He thinks there should be a more drastic weeding out of inefficient teachers. There U likely to be a great shortage in muUir car supplies*. One of the big AmcricjJi firms, writing to their Taranaki ajrente, β-ays: —''.Much dillioulty is 'being had in securing btcainsdiip uccum■inodation for shipping cars and parte. This is due to the very small number of sailings which occur Irom New York or the Pacific Coast. The position has been further aggravated by an embargo which .hafl been placed by tli* majority of the I railroads which carry our care to New York terminals. For the pant week wo •have been unable to «liip ii boxed ear to our domestic dealers located in such places an New York and Ojston, aJid co far Od boxed ears for export are concerned, they have been absolutely impossible, the railroads rt [using to load ' freight here at the factory- This em- ' bargo has been due to freight which ' has become congested around seaports, 1 and until suoh congestion is materially ; Telieved we shall have ttie utmost clifli- ' culty in clearing c\rs from seaports."

Few people are nwure of the enormous number of felt hats sent out from England every year. In 1013, for instance, no fewer than 9,401.748 were exported. Thousands of the highest-priced ones go to places where one would least expect to find them. On the Brazilian and Peruvian coasts, in Bolivia and Chile the people insist on having the very best quality and latest .shapes regardless of price. To Canada no (ewer than 2,282,728 felt hats were sent in 1012, and over 1,000,000 to Australia and New Zealand. Natal had 130,000, British West Africa, 120,000, and the Cape of i Rood Hope. 413,000. The bowler finds rts way everywhere, Chile had 33.000 in 1013, Brazil 18.000, Uruguay '23,000. the Argentine 111,000, and the British West Indies 128.000. For novelty designs in all-wool blousings, at lowest cash prices, visit our dress department. —Smith and Caughcy,' Ltd., Auckland's great shopping centre. — (Ad.)