IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 306, 27 December 1929, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

TRANSPORT BOARD ACCOUNTS, VALUE OF ASSETS QUESTIONED. \ (To the Editor.) This is the festive season and few persm,. care at present to be troubled with hIT sheets, so that the annual statementof T Transport Board is likely to hav »tf ! little attention. It is, weflSJ on account of the light it throve both on « position of the Transport Board an-i th» - i of a Government audit. Thr- canity . 3 shows the expenditure charged to canitai / March 31, 1929, and the loans ! that date, and claims a balance of over the amount of loans. i mon «• «, , •?°° o on which capital has been which are at present represented by notthf whatever Motor omnibus goodwilf Jfe will provoke a smile from accountants 'r, 7 renewals suspense £57,000 represent* !■ done in the past, which in nmiryS, m * doing again! Hobr,on Street T? |£84,000. It was underwood tfiVft been sold to the Electric Power Boar? v . sonby depot buildings £17,000. Havo Tl these been pulled down and the sitTortwS for sale? Discount on loans £43000- tV • gone irretrievably. Preliminary expenses f m " mation of Transport Board £4OOo! these doubtful assets deducted the credit 11 ance of £40,000 becomes a debit of £ snnnl" The £40,000 balance claimed as beta* in tl capital account is carried to the m SI balance, which, even after receiving that assist ance, has a debit balance or' £78,000 but the amendments outlined above were this debit balance should be £298 000 V this position the Transport Board must not Z held responsible. The items in the capital account mentioned above were all inherited from the City Council, and it is extraordinary that a commission with an accountant for chairman should have saddled a transport board with so muoh ancient history, j> j« extraordinary also that the City Council with a transport system in this condition should have struggled manfully ap-ainst passing on a large part of the responsibility to other people and extraordinary that the other local bodies should have been anxious to acquire a share in the system. If this were a company there would have to be a drastic writing down 0 £ capital. As it is a public transport, system acquired on borrowed money, this course ie impossible. The loans have to be paid. Tho main consideration, therefore, is whether the system is paying it*, way. We are told that the buses are still losing money. Is this on the Avorking expenses, or is it due to charging the buses a percentage of the old debts? The crams are shown as making a substantial profit and the buses as making an equivalent loss', and it would appear to be wisdom to land over the buses to those who are reported to be willing to take them over. At the same time, it would simplify matters and enable the man in the stre-tt to uiderstand tlie position if the items in the capital account which represent nothing were written off. * The loans would be left and the amount of and sinking fund thereon would be known, and it would be comparatively easy to eee if we aw

paying our way.

ACCOUNTANT.

PRICE CUTTING,

Your correspondent "Retaiier" is raudi pn>' curbed by competitive prices. Would he allow me to put this question: In the event of his having a house built altar calling for -julilic tenders, which is customary, would he decline to accept the lowest on the score of price, cutting? And, furthermore, would he suggest that the merchants supplying the materials be black-listed? I do like consistency. At the present time one section of the community is. .being compelled to sell its labour for what it can get and when it comes to purchase it is faced with a combined system of fixation of prices. At the present lime the labour for erecting houses is but two-thirds of what it should reasonably be. and yet if builders wera to decline to accept such work except at a standard rate (or fixation of prices to. prevent cutting) they would at once be charged with forming a ring, or combine, to exploit the public,,and possibly "Retailer" would not hesitate to condemn them. Take milk, which is so necessary to human life. The farmer is being paid tenpence per gallon and the vendor gets sixpence per quart, two shillings per gallon. Were the farmer to sell direct to the householder, would he then necessarily be cutting prices? I question whether any honest man would say so. . ARTHUR CUMMINGS. , ' I WHY NOT ESPERANTO? Having read the article in Monday's "Star" headed "Why Esperanto?" I must aek "Why not Esperanto?" Your writer says that English is the sovereign tongue of to-day and to-morrow. I agree with the former, but who can answer for the latter? Man knows not: what to-morrow may bring. The study of English is encouraged in. Germany, France, Japan and in Czecho-Slcvakia, but remember so also is Esperanto. When Esperanto W been before the people- so long as JuJgiw there will be many millions epeaKinb Esperanto. It is as yet merely in its lniancy, and, like a being, has to grow, and it » grow , ing. It is the continual pruning, as it were, by unfair, and, shall I say. people who W* little or nothing of it, that tends to hold n back. We have all to crawl beforo we nw* and walk before we run. Your writer correct says that since 1880 we have had several ian guagee before us as auxiliary languages, inu was "Volapuk," a broken dialect.of lish; "Esperanto," which ousted "Votepg ». "Idiom Neutral," which let "Esperanto m> "Ido," which your writer says was an mip.° variety of "Esperanto," but which,^ in ; ««£ was a more confusing variety, wnutf x*V* anto" ousted, and several others. * to ™ this we must admit that Esperanto is iws nised by the people as the best of ttJ anuu*. languages, for it is still with Uβ and goj strong, while the others have been cast -aflw In 1887 there was one who spoke Japei«JJ and now after forty-two yearc there are eu where in the region of 1,500.000, not bad pw gress for a language. There Is one pronjneed reason why Esperanto snouln be tnea u schools. It will do far more towards prow*; ing the children's minds thin any l *" l * over Nowadays the children arc swattingFrench, which will be of little or no u> them in after life, and if they a> dearcan correspond only with French c ""? re j: lf o f allow them to learn Esperanto, and ffl. the time they would be. able to write to^ u ren in almost any land, and by so doin e far more geographically than they ever from books or a master. nl) ri, W. G. E. WHEELER, VW*

TRAM FARE?. Permit me to enter my pjotest *Z*f y]e t increased tram fares from the poms » ffl{ of a house owner. I have my own mji and tram fares do not trouble me , dir , I indirectly the increase hits me hard am told'by the agei.t that le house because of rhe iJiu-oieed •■&" (i particularly now that water and rates "have both S on % T l^ TT^.nV yifliß. property market. HOUSE UW> h