CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20878, 10 June 1933, Page 15

CORRESPONDENCE.

Corrpspondents who do not comply with our rules set out in the last column o£ our Lender Page -will excuse us from noticing their letters. THE DAIRY CONTROL BOARD ELECTION. TO TUB EDITOB Of TH« FREES. Sir, —Your correspondent, Mr Parlane, suggests that it is almost silly to state that a farmer cannot run a commercial machine. I put it quite frankly to Mr Parlane that it is equally as difficult for a farmer untrained in commerce to direct the policy of a commercial machine as it would be for a commercial man untrained in the science of farming to direct the operations of a farm.—Yours, etc., G. H. CHRISTIE. June 9, 1933. OUR TREATMENT OF CRIME. TO THE EDITOR OV TH3 PBJSS3. Sir,—The Minister for Justice has come and gone. He has told us much of the wonderful crops grown at Faparua and equally remarkable stock raised at Waikeria; but he has said nothing of the improved quality of the human stock in either place; and after all surely the object of each place is to better the human inmates. The Justices of the Peace go to Paparua once a year, and of course they find "everything in the garden lovely. How many heart-to-heart talks have they had with the inmates? Do they know of their trials, difficulties, incapacities, injustices received, hardships endured, weaknesses, and temptations. "The prisoners' tales are all lies" I hear someone whisper. Wen, my friends usually accuse me of being •much too sceptical and distrustful, but I can assure the doubter that mucn that I have heard from prisoners of injustices done and foolish treatment I believe to be true I know that the criminals are not educated into bettei ways, nor is there any attempt made to cure their weaknesses, or strengthen their moral outlook during their term in gaol. One old head gaoler, with a lifetime of experience behind him, told me that he did not know a single prisoner with a long sentence who did not go out worse than he came in. Yet we know that elsewhere hL mental defectives are segregated the psychopaths treated, and the average criminal has his morale built up. Why fn New Zealand are we concentrating on cows and cabbages and not on the men themselves? Surely-the lives of men are more valuable than tnose 01 plants and animals and cannotbe exhveJe MtfrX £°SS& n'SmSS «ouSd for the belief that our ignorIn 0 ce n a d nd°complacency are tagpgbg obstacles in the way of progress in penal reform?— Yours, etc ROBT. M. LAING.

June 9. 1933. PS-The Minister is wrong m thinking that the headquarters of.the Howard League are in Chnstcnmcn. They are in Auckland.—R.M.L.

BACK TO THE LAND. TO THE EDITOR C» IHJS » ISB ' Sir —Western Europe, like New Zealand 'is in the throes of unemployment, and 'its remedies are very like ours Not one country, Britain included has brought forward a new idea. As Mussolini truly said, "There are only two methods-public relief work and the dole and the dole is negative. Italy, along with Germany, Sweden Austria and Czechoslovakia, believes that heland has still possibilities for the workless, while France, Belgium, and Holland think not. Holland declares she cannot sell what she Produces, while in the same breath she determines to complete the reclamation of the Zuyder Zee, on which £100,000,000 is to be spent during 30 years. Italy under the spur of Mussolini s genius, is perhaps getting the best return for her hundreds of millions of money-more than 3,000,000 acres of land reclaimed, or about to be reclaimed, hundreds of peasant families settled on new farms, 2000 families moved to more suitable locations, i.e.. internal migration, 370 miles of new railways opened, afforestation expedited, and vast schemes of public works carried out. Italy is determined to grow almost all her own wheat. In the catastrophic state of American agriculture, her new president's voice is heard: "We must reorganise the overbalance of population in our industrial centres, and by engaging on a national scale, in redistribution, endeavour to provide for a better use of our lands for those best fitted for the land." President Roosevelt, like many other leaders, does not see his way out of the land bog or "Slough of Despond," call it what you like. He can employ half a million men on afforestation, the returns from which are 10 or 20 years distant, but he cannot visualise the same armies of men growing in a few months the vegetables, cereals, and most of their food supplies—hungry millions in America, hungry thousands in Christchurch—waste land a few miles out.— Yours, etc., F. J. ALLEY. June 9, 1933. A NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS! TO THE EDITOR Or TH« PBESS. Sir,—ln the fulness of my- overcharged heart I would ask of you space to convey not only my own thanks but that of thousands of your readers to Mr C. F. Pryke, who has delivered an absolutely new gospel of hope and happiness to us poor mortals who have been struggling hopelessly for some years in a Slough of Despond. According to "The Press" report of the meeting of the Port Christchurch League on Thursday, Mr Pryke enunciated what I might call a new philosophy of debt. Now debts have always, even in time of prosperity, meant annoyance to us. Sometimes they blossomed into duns, and reached their full fruition of unpleasantness in the final form of judgment summonses. Sometimes our walks abroad were spoiled completely for us by the intrusion of common tradespeople who would speak of "that little bill," what time we wished to revel in the joys of nature or study humanity as it flowed along the streets. These odious people were a worry to us. We could not escape them; we could not freeze them off. though wo showed clearly that they were unwelcome; and unfortunately homicide was an indictable offence for which severe penalties were ordained. Now Mr Pryke has spoken the fitting word. We need be worried no longer over these annoying debts. Listen to his ipsissima verba—to owe money was nothing to worry about these days. Even the big nations were owing money and not paying it. "I don't believe in worrying if I am in debt," he said. "If you take life as seriously as this you will never get anywhere. When a man takes on business he doesn't want to worry about finance, but just to concentrate on the object in front of him."

I never read such inspiring words in my life. It has given me a new and nobler ambition which I have begun to put into practice. I have gone out to order all kinds of goods—on credit of course. I have not yet been very successful—but there are lots and lots of business people in Christchurch, and I have only begun. One nasty kind of man, indeed, turned me down with the remark, "I will buy anything of you on these terms, but I won't sell you anything." That was a short-sighted view. Might I suggest to Mr Pryke that he should write and publish a primer on this newest of new economics? It would have a great sale, and cheer the hearts of thousands and thousands. May heaven bless the new prophet for his message! He has made

debts pleasant, humorous episodes in place of horrors. lam joyfully going to incur as many debts as I can. Hooray! The world is once again a merry old world.—Yours, etc., SELAH. June 9, 1933. OUR VANISHING SILVER COINAGE. TO THE EDITOB 0» TUB FBISS. Sir, —Your correspondent, Nino Di Somma, is always interesting, if he is not instructive. He is engaged in the purchase and sale of precious metals, though he does not appear to grasp the first principles of coinage. He says, for instance, that the smuggling of silver coinage out of the Dominion is a great financial loss to New Zealand. The contrary is a fact. Any schoolboy would tell him that, silver and copper coins are only tokens and not worth their face value. For instance, half-a-crown weighs . half an ounce, and at the present price of silver is worth only lOd. Add to this the cost of minting, say 2d, and it is worth Is. At this price the Government of the Dominion buys the coin from the mint. It is then delivered to the Bank of New Zealand and credit taken for half-a-crown. Half-crowns are supplied to the New Zealand Government on the understanding that they are for internal use, and are not to leave the country. The Government it; bound in honour to see that this condition is carried out. Every half-a-crown, therefore, that is smuggled out of this country is a distinct profit to the Government of Is 6d; or if you like to the ratepayers. A fraud is, however, committed on the British Government.

The mint makes a considerable profit on the coining of silver and copper, but coins gold for nothing. If I take a bag of gold dust to the mint I can get the same weight of sovereigns for it. 1 am not surprised that the Government did not reply to your correspondent's letter, and I hope that it does not take his letters as a sample of the intelligence of Christchurch people. He suggests that the Government should take full charge of our coinage. It does, and it anyone is found taking a bag of tokens out of the country, he forfeits it, and rightly so. It is horrible to contemplate that there are amongst us men who, for the sake of personal gain, will break the promise of the Government and commit a fraud upon the Mother Country.—Yours, etc., SIMPLE SIMON. June 9, 1933. TO THE EDITOF. OF THE IT.ESS. Sir, —In "The Press" to-day there are recorded two arresting stories, which illustrate the manner in which the Government blunders on from one mistake to another, never learning anything, never listening to any advice, letting things go as they may or will, while Mr Forbes, with determined pessimism, makes our blood run cold with prophecies of wrath to come, and Mr Coates gives relief by cheerfully assuring us for the millionth time that we are just round the corner. Of course we do not believe either of them.

We read that the steamer Wanganella was held up at Wellington on Thursday, while 50 police along with Customs officers, searched the ship for £I3OO worth of silver suspected to be aboard. They found £7OO in possession of several members of the crew. The other reference is contained in a message from Sydney, which gives an interesting explanation of how this profitable game of smuggling is played. The one particular sentence I would cite is: "It is not considered in Australia that the ban placed on the export of silver coins by New Zealand has been very effective and it is not surprising to authorities here that New Zealand should have run short of coins."

Long ago I drew the attention of the Government to what was certain to happen—what had even then begun to happen. The Government listened and then went to sleep again. When the drain became so serious that it was necessary to import £60,000 worth of silver coins from Australia, the Government woke up and began to get busy. If the £60,000 imported coins may be taken as the amount of silver coins smuggled abroad, it means that the Government has lost to the country without any shadow of a reason, at least £7OOO on that sum. It has gone to the smugglers.

And now the Government is getting panicky when it is too late. The Government is realising what I pointed out weeks ago, that unless it took steps to safeguard the position and do it speedily, a great illicit traffic in silver coin smuggling would begin with a certain loss to the public. Whatever the Government does now—unless it goes to sleep again after this spasm of energy—it has by its apathy or ineptitude lost many thousands which ought to have gone to help our hungry finances. It could not have served the interests of the silver smugglers better if it were a partner in the business.

My purpose in this is to direct public attention to these slovenly and stupid ways of conducting public business. Only the public can bring the Government to its senses, and it is time it was done.—Yours, etc., NINO DI SOMMA. June 9, 1933. THE RUSSIAN EXPERIMENT. TO THE BDITOR Of THI PRISS. Sir,—l notice a long Jetter in your paper of yesterday over the signature of "Jack Doyle" on the above subject. After enumerating a large number of enterprises undertaken by the U.S.S.R., he states, "These are things I saw," and then asks, "What have the people gained?" and the second in the list of gains comes "elimination of prostitution." Will Mr Ddyle kindly inform me how he knows that this has happened, what measures the Soviet took to bring it about, and what means Mr Doyle took to verify his conclusions, as I am sure many of your readers will be most interested to hear all about it?— Yours, etc., CURIOUS. June 9, 1933. TO THE EDITOB OF THE PBESS. Sir, —As an interested reader of the letters on the above subject which have been appearing in your paper it is apparent to me that your correspondent "Historicus" is determined never to forgive the Russian communists for not slavishly copying the British parliamentary political system. Being a keen student of history myself, I was naturally interested when "Historicus" admitted similar tastes and was prepared to give his criticism of the Russian experiment serious deliberation. However, after carefully reading all that he has written I must say he appears to have pursued his historical studies with a singular lack of insight. For example, he exhibits a complete ignorance of the fact that every economic system in the past has had its own political system peculiar to itself. "Historicus" appears to believe that the British parliamentary pseudodemocratic system is the best and most appropriate political system, no matter whether the economic development of a country be feudal, capitalist, or socialist.

There is not a particle of evidence to support the contention of "Historicus" that Soviet Russia could or would tolerate our political system. On the contrary there is ample evidence from our own experience in New Zealand of mishandling of state enterprise, which goes to prove that it would not work in Russia at all. It is illuminating to

examine a list of the various legislative acts passed by our parliament during a single session, for the purpose of finding out how much of our legislation would be necessary in a socialist state. One is forced to the conclusion that our parliament exists almost solely for the purpose of propping up an economic system perpetually in a state of disequilibrium and threatened collapse. I might state for the enlightenment of "Historicus" that the Russian political system is as yet in the experimental stage and has been designed with the purpose of giving it as much elasticity as possible to allow for evolutionary development. The exigencies of the five year plan exposed very few defects in their system apart from indicating the necessity of more decentralised control of industry. As far as economic doctrine is concerned the communists in Russia know exactly what they want and how to get it—a rather refreshing spectacle in a world of muddleheaded capitalism.— Yours, etc., COLLECTIVISM June 9, 1933. TO THE EDITOR OS THE 2KISSS. Sir, —We regret that we have been unable until now to take issue with our old friend "Historicus." If he is to justify his non-de-plume he must be more accurate in his historical research. His statement that serfdom was abolished by the revolution of 1917 is utter nonsense. It was abolished by the ukase of Tsar Alexander 11. in 1868. Another piece of delightful naivete was his quotation of an alleged pfofessor of biology and zoology. We say "alleged" because no real professor of biology, the science dealing with life, would make such a statement as that about a person being kept six days without water; a real professor would know that three days is the limit a human being can go and live to tell the tale.

We have a growing conviction that "Historicus" suffers from a curious inability to analyse either history or democracy. Our democracy here is a democracy" of the few wealthy over the many poor. It has two defects, power in the hands of the few and the inability to find buyers for an increasing output on a decreasing market. On the other hand, democracy in the Soviet Union is the power in the hands of the many against the old nobility and the bourgeoise, while the output there, instead of being for private gain, is for those who do the work and for them alone.

As for tyranny, it may be news to your correspondent to know that the workers in the factories are armed, "every factory an arsenal," and tyranny gets short shift with an armed populace. It would here. How is it that the Soviet Government is the only government in the world which permits the arming of the masses? Only because the Soviet Government is the government of the masses and serves their interests.

Dr. F. J. Dillon, a friend of two Tsars, a professor in the Kharkov Uni- | versity, adviser to Count Witte and a Roman Catholic who had his all confiscated by the revolution, has written a very readable book, Russia To-day and Yesterday, which disposes of the point of lack of freedom in Russia, j We take the liberty of a quotation: "Whatever of good or evil Bolshevism may bring forth, it has one outstanding feature to its credit, one that has stood it in good stead—merciless, unsparing self-criticism. Everywhere, in the isolated village wall newspaper, in the leaders of the great dailies, and, most surprising, amongst the highest officials, one finds these merciless censors of Government procedure. In Sovietdom self-criticism is become an ingrained habit Abuses, instead o' being hushed up as in western lands, are dragged into the light of day, gibbeted, exaggerated, decried, punished, and redressed. There are hardly any limits to this self-condemnation. Hence most of the weapons employed against the Soviets by their enemies are composed of these candid, biting strictures." The Emergency Act deals with those who utter biting criticisms of the New Zealand Government. I should like to advise "Historicus" to read this book, as it would give him far and away better material for his anti-propaganda than his own misconceptions and prejudices.—Yours, etc. FRIENDS OP THE SOVIET UNION PRESS COMMITTEE. June 9, 1933.

CARELESS MOTORISTS. TO THE EDITOR OF THB PHESS. Sir,—l have read for some time the excellent motor notes appearing in your journal, which are most helpful. There are three important matters which you have touched upon that many motorists do not appreciate. They are:— x (1) The importance of proper forms of head lights, to which the motor authorities should direct their immediate attention. (2) Insistence by the traffic control to see that motorists driving from the side of the road to the middle/ put out their hand in accordance with the regulations would avoid risks to other passing cars and bicycles. (3) That the "man on the right" is always right has become almost a fetish, which has encouraged reckless drivers to take a chance on the main to the detriment of a careful driver. Manchester street and Papanui road give daily demonstrations of fast drivers taking a chance, putting the wind up a careful motorist. This is more pronounced in the outlying districts. Sir Malcolm Campbell, according to your motor notes recently, stated that 90 per cent.\of the accfdents throughout the world were due to the side-road driver taking a chance on the main thoroughfare. I admit that the rule of giving way to the right is a good one, but it cannot function if one motorist is speeding, which cannot possibly give the care-1 ful driver a dog's chance. It is to be hoped that before long the motor organisations throughout the Dominion will give this matter serious consideration in order that the careful driver can be protected from the reckless driver. The obligations of the side road driver are submerged by the immediate operation of the law that the man on the right is always right. To my mind speed is the more important.—Yours, etc., w CAREFUL DRIVER. June 9, 1933. . THE HEATHCOTE BRIDGE. TO THE EDITOB OF-THE TRtBS. Sir,— Seeing that there were several mistakes in your report of the above on Monday last, and others in the correspondence to-day, it struck me that I might have a go at it myself, as my name appeared in your article on Monday. The Christchurch quay was on the bank of the river where the water trough is now, on the town side of the Radley bridge. Mr John Horler later made it into a soap factory. It was the steam wharf that was by the creek just west of the "tanks." To give some idea of the amount of business that was done on the river in the early days, I may mention that Mr Robert had a wharf and timber yard at the end of Marden and Catherine streets. Mr W. Langdown also landed lime for his kilns that stood where the Davis Gelatine Works are now. As far back as I can remember I have seen boats at the quay and steam wharf—the Tongariro, Mulloch, Gipsy, E. and U. Cameron, and a number of others which I could name. I might mention that on April 25 and October 15, 1905, the ketch Comet brought me two full loads of timber from Port Levy. The first bridge was opened in 1864; the toll-house stood where the road is now between the bridge and the hotel. It was destroyed by fire. Jack Clarkson was the last bridge-keeper. The bridge was taken away in 1910, and the iron swing portion was taken to make a bridge across the Avon to connext Swann's and Retreat roads. None of the timber was used on that bridge; it was sold on the river bank on June 23, 1910. Laurie and Page were the vendors.

Thinking of the old bridge brings to my mind an incident that happened on November 22, 1837. Mr W. Woods was bringing a house from Christchurch, and when the carrying party got to the bridge they found it was too narrow. The building had to be .raised on the lorry so that it would be above the railings. The road was blrwked for three hours.

The new bridge was opened by the Hon. G. Fowlds on March 9, 1907, and if anyone takes the trouble they can see the date that I stamped on the railings that day. Jack Smith ran passengers in his launch Kea from Sumner and Redcliffs to the bridge on that occasion. I should like to mention that I built the house over the motors that were

under the bridge. Mr J. Crawford, the Sumner borough engineer, was in" charge of the work. The Sumner and Mount Pleasant water pipes are not under the asphalt but outside of the railings on either side of the -bridge. Soon after the bridge was finished, one of the tension screws used to strain the wire ropes that supported the overhead structure broke. This screw was two inches in diameter.—Yours, etc., „ . J; °- a NEWBERY. ' Redcliflfs, June "7, 1933. WORDS MISUSED. TO THE EDITOB OF TUB P&KSS Sir,—The address delivered by the Bishop of Nelson at the opening of the Diocesan ■ Synod on the subject of words misused is both lengthy and in- , teresting. In these days lucidity and, definite expressions command respect Is it too much to ask the Bishop of Nelson whether he or tile* Church which he represents continues to maintain that the Bible is the true.word of God and that it is literal truth? The writer has asked this plain question of those whose profession and business is religion, and has ever been met-with the use of words to which the Bishop of Nelson has so definitely taken exception. I quite agree with him that this evasion is in conflict with morality and should be glad .„to hear from himself * his plain answer to the above question as to the literal truth of the Bible. My question involves more than a compulsory reduction of interest—Yours, etc., H.S. -• June 9, 1933. - r POET CHRISTCHURCH. TO THE BDITOB OT THK MUMS. Sir,—ln my letter this morning the statement appears that the site in the middle of the estuary proposed by some for the new port would be five, "minutes" from the Chief Post Office; this should read five "miles.**—Yours, ! etc, COGITO. -~