IN THE PUBLIC MIND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 34, 10 February 1943, Page 2

IN THE PUBLIC MIND

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS CHRISTCHURCH EAST ELECTION r To the Editor.

Some peculiar deductions by politicians followed the result of the Christchurch East by-election, but to the many others the verdict was a signal message of dissatisfaction with the present administration, it certainly was not a swing to the National party, which recorded 2000odd votes as against 3000-odd at the main previous election. To my way of thinking there is an inherent desire within the community for the establishment of something more akin to the old Liberal party which represents the progressive urge for-, advancement, and this was demonstrated by the sound legislative measures placed on the Statute. My outlook to some extent has been influenced by the marked success of Independent candidates in Great Britain, which reflects a desire for something not yet attained. Amid all»these conflicting outbursts I can visualise the presentation of some balanced policy not embodied in the utterances of our various party leaders during the election in question. The writing is on the wall and it behoves every citizen (man and woman) to pay more serious attention to sound politics and not be carried away by a determined effort on the part of youthful inexperienced economic students to promote a new world order. With the return of our soldiers to civil life who will rightly expect a hand in affairs, it is all the more imperative that planning for the future shall he abreast of the times, based on sound fundamentals reflecting in the main a full knowledge supported by past experience and not merely a fantastic plan savouring of youthful inexperience learned from a book. Evolutionary, not revolutionary methods appeal to the average citizen, and a new order containing a balanced formula wrought of experience is what is devoutly sought. MAKE HASTE SLOWLY

ECONOMIC ALLOAVANCES There are times when I want to be a public speaker and tell the powers that be just what I think of them with regard to the Pension Board's cutting of a pensioner's economic allowance because his wife has a job. Surely it's the wife's business if she wants to earn a bit to help out, if there is a job and she is willing to do it; and why shouldn't she? I do hope this matter—the right of a pensioner's wife to work—will be taken up by every right-minded person in New Zealand. Not all of us want to run two jobs. Not always will the jobs be there to run once the menfolk get back, but while the jobs are there and the women are willing to do them I cannot see what it has to do with the Pensions Board. All they have to see- to is that the returned maimed and broken man gets as much pension and allowance to keep him and his to live in the same style and comfort as he would have provided had he remained at home in an essential job. This cutting the economic allow-, ance because the wife earns a few bob is the limit; it is nothing out of the public purse. The jobs are there, workers are scarce; what right have they to lay down the law that a pensioner's wife shall sit with folded hands and go without things, or if unable to live on pension allowance accept charity? This matter affects every woman in New Zealand. Every woman has a right to work if she wants to. How much better for both if they are apart for some hours, since he can't go out and rub shoulders with the world and bring in outside interests. How much better that she must go out and hear from workmates and casual meetings something fresh for her broken mate. GRANDMA. RUBBISH TIPS The article printed in your paper concerning the danger of ptomaine poisoning to people using canned food from the tip was no doubt very instructive. However, the number of persons likely to be so attacked is negligible when compared with the potential danger to the thousand's living in this city from the myriads of filthy flies and rats which haunt this sore. I refer, of course, to the Westmere tip. How the health authorities and the City Council can allow this sort of thing to go on is beyond one's comprehension. Surely the authorities have not forgotten the plague which raged throughout the world after the last war, doubtless caused by a combination o|f lowered vitality, starvation and thousands of unburied dead on the battlefields, and transmitted, of course, by our friend the fly. It would be ironical indeed if the food and fruit which the people cannot afford to buy is allowed to, rot and is dumped, there to breed the disease that will in turn strike them down. If it is necessary to dump foodstuffs in this, our enlightened twentieth century, would it not be much wiser to put it through the destructor? A. W. TIPPING.