CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20587, 1 July 1932, Page 18

CORRESPONDENCE.

Correspondents who do not comply with our ruiei set out in the last column of our Leader Page will excuse us from noticing their letters. Anxioui to Know. —To-morrow. THE HISTORY OF FARMERS A, B, AND C. TO THE EDITOR Or THE PRESS. Sir, —Before the War there were three 'farmers in this district. We shall call jtheni A, B. and C. They all had farms 'of 200 to 300 acres of good land, subject to a mortgage of about 10s in the !£■]. When the boom came A, being an •c!d stick-in-the-mud, stuck to his old homo, his old horse and gig, paid off hi* mortgage, and soon had a big deposit in the bank. B built a new house and bought an expensive car, both at the height of the boom, increased his cost of living to correspond, and increased his mortgage. He is now being rationed by a stock firm. C sold his farm at the top of the boom and went in for a big place, mortgaged up to the hilt. He is now among the unemployed. At present B is a strong advocate of the Douglas Plan; C is an advocate of some other system. A bought B's car second-hand for a song sonic time ago, and lie says, a* building is so cheap, he thinks he will build a new house. lie doesn't seem to have much time for any of tl esc svs--I<ni9. In fact ho thinks that the Present depression is chiefly due to "the whole community having" followed B's and Cs examples and lived beyond their incomes irfj&ft. borrowed money. B and C talk far than A; lut then A is prosperous,, whereas B and C are both bankrupt. Could Proffseor Toeker tell me which one of the tlircc is in the right?— Yours, etc., Oxford, June 29th, 1932. PEDESTRIANS AND CYCLISTS ON THE ROAD. TO THE EDITOR Or THE PRESS. Sir, —Hundreds of motorists growl daily about the rapid-fire emergency stops they have imposed on them to save the life of some dreaming pedestrian or silly cyclist.- Brakes are worn out and renewed, nerves strung up, all because certain folk will not keep awake and obey the rules of the road. I am a car-driver of only twelve years' practice with cars and" trucks of all sizes; and this week, for instance, I saved the lives of two cyclists who tried to commit suicide under my ear by absolute disobedience of the rale of the road. Had I been unable to avoid the accidents who would have been blamed? Of course I would have been. There is no effective obligation on the pedestrian or the cyclist, apparently, to take caro of himself, and Be can't he blamed, no matter how selfish or thoughtless his act. We motorists do try to study other traffic and its right to nsc the highway; but something must bo done soon to make an example of those who go looking for trouble. In one instance a cyclist signalled Ills turn and had gone half round when lie turned sharply back towards my car irithont reason, and newly-adiusted brakes saved him from the hospital. I Rave him a sharp dressing down; but Be only jeered at me for my trouble. This, of course, often occurs. I pride myself that no one will suffer through anv fault of mine and don't like this Indifference to danger.—Tours, etc.. LOOK OUT. Jane 30th, 1.932. DOUGLAS SOCIAL CREDIT. TO THS EDITOR OF THE FBESS. Sir.—ln your "Wednesday's issue, Mr J. Morrison asks for further explanation of the fundamental fault in the present monetary and credit < *y6tem. I will attempt to answer it by taking Professor Tocker's explanation of what he terms the Douglas fallacy. At the meeting of the liomics Society on Monday night, at which members of the New Economics Society were present by invitation, Mr lawn had a graph showing the Dougla* theory. A £IOOO loan being issued to a manufacturer is used to commence the production of p;oods. It is spent in wages, and coming back to the banking system is cancelled out of existence, leaving £IOOO costs standing against those goods. Another £IOOO is created on loan to advance the manufacturer of the goods a stage further, and like wise goes out of existence, leaving another £IOOO costs against tho goods. This process is repeated four times (for the sake of the argument), and finally there is only the last £IOOO in the hands of the workers to buy the goods which now have a total cost of £4OOO. Professor Tocker claims that the whole : £4OOO spent on the goods is still in the banking system to boy the goods. If he is right, then ihe workers and the manufacturer himself lived on air while the goods were being made. Everyone knows that the workers' wages are practically all spent within the week; but it is this expenditure on consumable goods that takes the monej out of the system, together with the goods. fn past ages manv clever people, who were .'clever for those days,' believed that the world was flat. The other iqaestions raised by Mr Morrison have .bsan answered so fully in the same llsßoe by Mr Atmore and "Tussocks" •that I need not trespass further on tyonr space than to. suggest that your correspondent read these letters again very carefully-—Yours, etc., "W. B. BRAY. June 30th. 1932. A STATE INVESTMENT TRUST. TO THX EDITOR OF TH* FSES9. Sir, —To-day's burden is interest at present rates. I would like to put the following suggestion:— Let a trust be. created to supply the Government with money for investment, the interest as it is paid to be as principal. This would are an ever increasing supply of . money at fixed interest rates. I would Niggest that the State Advances O©" psxrtment and Harbour Board and municipal authorities borrow at 2$ cent, interest. If the money is relent, interest should be 3 per cent. LowTill a . of interest for all first-class securities would be the result if this were carried out. —Yours, etc., LATEST SUGGESTION. June 30th, 1932. ACCESS TO LYTTELTON. TO TUB EDITOR OF THE MESS. Sir,—lt is gratifying to find a move made to give Christehurch suitable road aeeess to its front door, tie Borough of Port Lyttelton, the best our.City boast just now. Engineers' reports favour the long and round-about Evans Baas route on account of its low altitude; but it seems to me that Bapaki should claim special examination, for it ii the air-line to Lyttelton, or as nearly 00 as esq be found. Witches Hill, as the ridge above Rapaki is called, is nueh sharper than Evans Pass at the top; but a short tunnel road there would lower the altitude a lot and imrve the grade. Can any ready data procured on this? The Evans Pass route would not open up settlement, j jwMo Bapaki, * *°ute fast gaining

favour with trampers, "would provide an arterial road of immense value, onable the hill suburbs to expand, and, in conjunction with the widening of the Summit road from the Sign of tho Kiwi eastwards, provide an asset of public value. To go a quick nine miles to port would attract traffic to Lyttelton, but, via Evans Pass, 13 miles, it is far too indirect in my opinion, and the benefits would be singular only in character. I hear quite a number thinking just as I have stated; that is, that there is something of a natural claim in the Kapaki route, despite its disadvantages, and I would like to see the matter threshed out. —Yours, etc., SPEAK UP. June 30th, 1932. DUNELM SCHOOL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir. —I sliall be very grateful if you will allow me to make a small correction in connexion with my letter, published in your paper this morning, l'n appending to my signature the words "Dunelm School" I did not mean to convey the idea that I had reopened the school in Kekerangu, though this might appear to be the case, since you added the words "Kekerangu, Marlborough," my present private address, to my letter. I>unelm School is closed for the time being, and I am anxious to avoid giving the impression that I have the intention of re-establishing it so far away from Canterbury or Christ's College, which is not the case. T shall greatly appreciate it if you will be so good as to allow me to make this correction, as otherwise it might be detrimental to Dunelm and to me. —Yours, etc., CECIL E. FERRIS. Kekerangu, Marlborough, June 28th, 1932. WALTHAM SCHOOL AND DISTRICT. TO THX EDITOR OT THE P*lS9. Sir, —On Moiiday night at the farewell to Miss Adams the chairman ol the School Committee remarked "that although the AValtham School was situated in a poor district, its pupils had made tlieir mark in all walks ot life." Why the chairman should have said that the school was situated in a poor district is very hard to understand. There are very few distress cases in the district. During the distributions under the Pound Scheme last winter it was found that there were onlv two cases where relief was needed, the remark was unwarranted. - Vo " rß ' A MHIDISNT. June 30th, 1932.