THINGS THAT MATTER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1943, Page 4

THINGS THAT MATTER

The Auckland public—perhaps any public anywhere—is really too funnv for words. The things that will arouse their passionate arguments! Yet letters in this column about important things go unheeded. How many people, for instance, have allowed themselves to get irate over the subject of equal pay for equal work, and the unfair position in which many girls are placed to-dav. doing men's work for half the salarv? Political discussion is free, admittedly, but even then I've seen but one letter on the subject of youths' part in the coming election. Don't young people themselves care? And how much interest will be shown, I wonder, in the Education Boards report on child delinquency and the Star's scathing—and in many respects justified—leader on it. It's not enough for a few of us to attempt to show alertness about worthwhile subjects (the letters quoted were not mine, incidentally, lest I be accused of sour grapes), when small-minded people get frantic as to whether Great Britain or New Zealand builds ships the faster. What does it matter as long as they get built. Each country has too much to be proud of to be petty about the other's achievements. Let's save our energy for the things that matter. JILL NEWLAND.