TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 151, 27 June 1924, Page 7

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

RATEPAYER.—The charge has always existed but 13 not invariably enforced. CORRESPONDENT.—Dame Melba has given four concerts in Auckland at the Opera House. Her first appearance was April 2, 1903, and her second April 5, 1903. Second tour, after an absence of a little more than six years, May 18, 1909, and May 20, 1909. TOWN PLANNING SCIENCE. (To the Editor.) Sir,—There is a feature of town planning amendable to improvement—the nomenclature of thoroughfares, ways, bypaths, etc., is in a state of chaos. In this scientific age, something better ought to rule. Road, street, avenue, parade, boulevard, esplanade, terrace, circus, square, place, crescent, common, hill, walk, lane, alley, way : each have a distinctive suggestion of fitness, but are applied in haphazard fashion. The designation "road" is correctly applied to such thoroughfares as Manukau, Mt. Eden, Now North, Great North, and J possibly to Ponsonby Road ; but Karangahape, Franklin, Jervois, Dominion, St. Andrew's Roads are " streets." In Mt. Eden there are a number of short streets, some even blind accommodation ways, that are dignified by the term " road." Other districts are possibly equal sinners. It may not be now practicable to change old standing names, hut the future could see some gain from a more correct appreciation of word meanings.—l am. etc., THOS. DAWES. BERESFORD STREET SCHOOL. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Mr. Mcßrine, writing about Bereeford Street school, cays: "The deterioration of the physical and moral health of the children in such an environment is anything but gradual, and is irretrievable in later years." Now, sir, this assertion casts a nasty reflection on the school teachers as moral instructors and also on the parents of the Beresford Street school children. I personally am acquainted, as a neighbour, with many of the children referred to, and can testify to the fact that they are splendidly behaved in every way. It is true that there are children attending the Beresford Street school, and this ] is true of many schools, who would bene--1 fit in a moral way by a change of homelife. Where the home-life of children is clean, generally speaking, such will be reflected in the school-life, even were the schools built of mud.—l am, etc., W. J. BELL. THE WASTE IN MOTORS. (To the Editor.) Sir,—A few of your correspondents attribute the high cost of living partly to racing, which, I think, should be classed as a local industry, insomuch that all money spent in connection with it remains in the country. Perhape the reason those who aecribo the high cost of living to this sport give is the heavy j taxation racing bears. May I offer the suggestion that the payment in the vicinity of sixpence a mile royalty, mostly to America, on all motor borne traffic, the initial cost of cars and lorries, the spending of millions in the attempt to provide roads, must be the biggest drain on the resources of the country Yet in spite of increased expenditure the roads are going back (see any country engineer's remarks). This more particularly applies to back block settlements, which are being neglected to provide speedways nearer the towns. Yet America contemplates the imposing of a 55 per cent per lb additional duty on butter. How does this compare with the treatment meted out to poor struggling motor firms like the Ford Company by us?—l am, etc., COCKY.