IN THE PUBLIC MIND

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 194, 18 August 1931, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC MIND

IMMIGRANTS IN DISTRESS. A REPATRIATION SCHEME. (To the Editor.) Amongst our unemployed arc thousands of people who have arrived here during the last live years. These unfortunate people were lured out here by false promises of work bv the Masscy and Coates Governments. Even the Flock House scheme has proved a failure (admitti 1 by the promoters). These people are mostly town folk from Manchester Blackpool, London, etc., and are no use in the country. Unlike the New Zealander and old colonists they cannot do jobs like post splitting, fencing, shearing and road contracting They are now mostly in the cities on relief work and have to be supported by charitable aid boards and other institutions' Very few are in their own homes, therefore they are paying no rates. Also in a lot of cases* their fathers and mothers sold up their homes in England and followed their children out here. Owing to their short residence here they are ineligible to receive the old-age pension, and they also have t. be supported by charitable aid boards. Now the most decent thing our present Government can do is to give "these unfortunate people a free passage back to their native country. The cost may seem great, but look what it is going to cost New Zealand to keep them, say, 20,000 people at £1 per week, which is £1,040,000 per year. If the Government will not grant them a free passage let it subsidise the shipping companies and let immigrants travel Home at, say, £5 per family, or £2 per person. These people would probably be able to get work in the factories, mines and industrial centres of England. TWENTY YEARS COLONIST. A BIRKENHEAD CARNIVAL. In your issue of the 13th inst. you convey the information that we ratepayers of Birkenhead are to pay an additional farthing in the pound for the purpose of raising the money to pay the borough's first contribution to the Fire Board. Now about the middle of 1929 it was decided to organise a queen carnival to raise funds for the purpose of the purchase of a fire engine, the formation of a fire brigade and providing and installing fire-fighting equipment. The carnival was generously supported by residents and friends of the borough, and in January, 1930, the balance of a sura of £645 was handed in trust to the Mayor and councillors for the above object, the money to be placed in a banking account where it would accumulate interest against the time when it would be required for its legitimate purpose. It seems extraordinary to me that notwithstanding the fact that th-6 money was raised, we are now called upon to pay an extra rate, and, incidentally, no explanation is made by the Mayor and councillors as to the disposal of the £645 and the accumulated interest. Surely the contributors to the carnival fund are entitled to some enlightenment on the point. ONE OF THE MUGS. HUNTING WILDCATS. Old-timers and miners dilate about the hoards of gold available for the digging, if only their advice is followed and they are suitably coddled, but they stultify their contentions -by neglecting to uncover their buried treasure and thus luxuriate in their RollsRoyce in preference to existing on the pension. Prior to 1880, when the Mines Department was created, the original and successful prospectors operated in the roadless wilds uncoddled and unsubsidised; and when the work became unprofitable they generally left for foreign fields. Since 1880 no regular dividendpaying gold quartz mine has been found in the North Island, although some rich bonanzas have been developed in the old-establfehed mines, and a few short-lived mines distributed some dividend, occasionally from capital. All correspondents, however, are in agreement in regard to the ineptitude of the Mines Department. How could they be otherwise? The permanent head of the Mines Department has alwaye, except for one year, been recruited from the clerical staff of some other Department, generally Public Works, being without mining experience or training, and the policy followed has generally been that of expediency as required by Ministers under our unfortunate party Government. Huge sums of public money have been thrown away in the form of loans and subsidies to companies on the verge of liquidation, the security taken being mostly valueless holes in the ground and rating machinery, as specified in my previous letter. As plentiful as rabbits in Otago are the flats who subscribe to these wildcats, who are of the same tribe a«s those who regularly pay £30,000 into art unions, of which only £4000 is returned as prize money. One is born every minute. WILD-CATTING. CRUELTY IN SPORT. I have been reading the various letters which have appeared in your paper re the above. I thought I would look up the meaning of sport. I did not find it meant cruelty in any form, or killing at all; directly the opposite, rather —to play, to amuse, to practise field diversions, not field cruelties or field killing. I think sport is a word which has been greatly misused and misappropriated. Would not the same people be very angry u they came across a big youth or man beating or hurting a tiny child? Are they not acting in the same way by their behaviour to email animate in some of their sports? Then there is pigeon and sparrow shooting, shot in the name of sport. I think that some of those who take part in these so-called sports, after the glamour and excitement has worn off, feel deep down within themselves disgust for taking part in euch sports, but have not the courage to say so or to leave them. We must all unite in helping to put down such unmanly sports (yes, I say unmanly, for manly is kindly, considerate, and, above all, humane) and try to get people to think differently and along opposite lines on these matters. SINGLE MEN AND RELIEF. I beg for an equal right in your valuable columns to express my opinion on the svste "J of distributing relief work to the unemployed of Otahuhu. Are the single men to continue to accept the brunt of everything that comes along? We are certainly paying the necessary levies, but at any time the board thinks n& we are quietly told that there is not sufficient funde to pay all wages, so off home single men must go and live on air for another week. Most single men in Otahuhu have been getting two weeks' work, and one weekon lately, and this week we were informed twx we will have to appear at the board's office on Wednesday, August 19, to see if we can start this week. I wonder if the single men would be shunned in this manner if we were in the throes of another war. Ido not think so. G-R----RATES AND VALUES. In the face of the announced reduction of municipal rates by id in the £1, can you or any of your readers explain how my raws have been increased by 0.36 per cent? In Wβ last seven years the rates on these P r . eml , s .J~ have been increased by 58 per cent, while tne rental has gone down nominally 31 per cent, but practically much more owing to I*°* ° tenants. The council is now costing i» half as much again ae in 1924. It does not seem that increases of boundaries has resultea in decrease in expense of management. Moun Albert and others beware. OVERTAiW*