LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25554, 23 July 1948, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

1. Letters sent to the Editor for printing must be written in ink on one side of the paper only, and writers must send in their names and addresses in full, whether they wish these to be printed or not. 2. Writers must say clearly whether or not their letters are being or have been sent to other papers. 3- The Editor cannot return or keep any letter which for any reason is unsuitable for printing, nor can he acknowledge unsuitable letters, although this will be done where it seems to be needful, or enter into any correspondence about letters sent in. 4. Letters must not be of more than 150 words in length. A Doctor’s Wife.—Too long. See top of column. Live and Let Live.—lf you wish to attack another woman personally, write over your own name. SHORTAGE OF GOODS Sir, —I was extremely amused by the childishly wild accusations emanating from the busy pen of your correspondent, G. E. Wright. He accuses the National Party of plotting with “warehouse people and manufacturers” to embarrass the people and the Government by “dribbling goods out sparingly” to the consumer. As to “embarrassing” the consumer, 1, as one consumer, will heartily agree that these continuing shortages “embarrass” me considerably; but I put the blame where due—on Socialism, just as most thinking people are now doing. As to embarrassing the Government, well, we Nationalists are too busy to waste our time doing unnecessary jobs. All we have to do is to go on quietly with our daily work ana let the watersiders, the miners, the G. E. Wrights, and others of that ilk do the “embarrassing” for us. Simple, really—no elaborate plotting necessary.—Yours, etc., T LITTLE AUDREY. July 22, 1948. Sir, —It is amusing and pathetic to read your report of a meeting of the council of the Manufacturers’ Association about a letter of the previous day from G. E. Wright. I have never read anything in Mr Wright’s letter to warrant notice—just the usual diatribe of a fanatical Labourite; and this letter was no different from the rest. Our shortages are mainly due to the policy of his party; and quality suffers accordingly. They are the result of import restrictions (imposed before the war) and the policy of developing uneconomic industries to the detriment of our all-important primary industries. Alter these two major economic factors, and quality and quantities of manufactured goods would soon improve. If Mr Wright will remove the mote in his eye he will realise that the party leaders, Government and Opposition, are out to support the larger industrialists by licence and price stabilisation.—Yours, etc., L.H. July 22, 1948.

TRAMWAY FINANCES Sir,—Recent reports reveal that the Christchurch Tramway Board’s deficiency is mounting steadily and the rate is to be doubled. As a ratepayer and regular tram passenger I would appreciate the following information from the chairman of the board rather than the general manager: 1. How many inspectors are employed? 2. What are their total annual salaries? 3. How much is actually saved in the way of missed fares per annum as the result of thbir employment? It is appreciated that their duties are not confined to this aspect of the work, but undoubtedly, it constitutes one of the main tasks. 4. It is understood that members of the board, City Council, and other local bodies receive free annual tram passes. The staff are, I think, entitled to travel at reduced rates, but is it necessary to issue free passes to the aforementioned, particularly the board members?—Yours, etc., ST. ANDREWS HILL STOP. July 14, 1948. [“lf ‘St. Andrews Hill Stop’ will write to me or call I will be pleased to discuss the matters with him and consider any constructive suggestions he may care to submit," said Mr C. C. Holland, chairman of the Christchurch Trzmway Board.] TRAFFIC CONTROL Sir,—lt is typical of the muddle in the traffic department of the City Council that it makes a detailed explanation of how traffic goes south, when I stated distinctly that I was going north. In this case there is no white line for traffic turning left. On the day in question, the cyclists, including the traffic inspector, continued on to the Square, so they were not entitled to pass on the inside. Our inspectors are hazy about the regulations as well as the points of the compass. The Transport Department should intervene before the question of which is the left or right-hand side of the road becomes a controversial issue.—Yours, etc., VARIAN J. WILSON. July 21. 1948. [“Section I of the Traffic Regulations, 1f36, states that every driver of a motor vehicle shall keep as close as is practicable to the left of the roadway,” said an officer of the Christchurch City Council’s Traffic Department. “If the correspondent had been complying with this regulation there would have been no room for other vehicles to pass him on his left.”l BISHOPSWORTH STREET Sir, —I would like to draw your attention to the state of the footpaths and drains in Bishopsworth street, Opawa. It is time that something was done to improve this street. There is no excuse for the City Council. It will say that there is a shortage of labour and materials, but that is contrary to fact, because it has seen its way clear for less important jobs, such as a park in Centaurus road. This street has not got the sewer on and the waste from the houses goes down into these dirty, filthy drains and does not get away. One wonders what the Minister of Health would have to say about this state of affairs. After all, the residents of this street do pay rates. I would like to know what for. —Yours, etc., FAIR PLAY.

July 15, 1948. [“The proper solution of the drainage trouble in Bishopworth street is the installation of kerbs, channels, and sewers,” said the City Engineer (Mr E. Somers). “A schedule of kerbing and channelling for the year will be submitted to the City Council shortly, and the claims of this street will not be overlooked. In the meantime the channel will be maintained as wpII as possible.”] PROPOSED TUBERCULOSIS REGULATIONS Sir, —A few days ago you published an article dealing with T.B. patients. Being one, I am interested in the clause which states that all homes of patients must be inspected by the Health Department before the patient may return home. Should the dwelling prove unsatisfactory to this health officer, is the patient to remain an inmate of the sanatorium for life, or is he (or she) to be granted (as soon as the medical superintendent of the sanatorium gives a discharge) a new State house to the standard the Health Department require for a T.B. case? It has been known for patients fit and well to leave the sanatorium, to be unable to get a house (not even a State house), therefore remaining in the institution, of course a dead loss to the taxpayers, whereas they could be rent-payers to the State.—Yours, etc., T.B. PATIENT. July 21, 1948. SKI-ING AT PORTER’S PASS Sir,-—I quite agree with “Peg Leg Jack.’’ Motorists should be warned off the course of ski-ers. Ski-ing develops a healthy mind in a healthy bodv—just what is needed for a future generation, not motoring smugness and complacency. Could not the motorists have a Saturday working and make a detour so as to leave the skiers unmolested? —Yours, etc.. PEG LEG JILL. July 22, 1948.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Sir, —Great consequences follow from particular decisions and actions of responsible authorities. Rulers are appointed by God. They are answerable to Him for their official acts. A historic case is the trial of Jesus Christ. Israel’s rulers, acting judicially, were commanded by God to “justify the ; righteous and condemn the wicked” : (Deut. 25.) “Moreover ye shall take - no satisfaction for the life of a murderer; he shall surely be put to death." (Num. 35:31). Instead of observing God’s law, they “denied the Holy One (Jesus) and desired a murderer (Barabbas) to be granted into them.” (Acts 3:14). Within 40 years their city was destroyed and scores of thousands perished. Our nation is at an unconscious crisis as its governing body debates an issue which proposes setting aside God’s plain law and substituting something else. There is more involved than Mr Churchill’s warning against excessive “humanitarianism.”—Yours, etc., B. L. PURDIE. July 21, 1948. PLOUGHING MATCHES Sir, —Your correspondent, “Plain Skeith,” complains of semi-undercut skeiths. If these, were the only means by which prizes are won it would not be so bad. To see some of the competitors at work I should say they ought to get a job with the nearest pastrycook and make turn-over apple tarts instead of plain ploughing feerings. When a ploughman has to pull his first two furrows together by hand and stamp them down, one wonders where the skill comes in. The old standard by which ploughing was judged was its resemblance to a series of the letter w—feering included.— Yours, etc., FLAT. AND FEATURELESS. July 22, 1948. Sir,—“Plain Skeith” raises a point which is being discussed at ploughing matches. In the plain ploughing classes, undercutting is apparently allowed, provided that the skeith shank is attached to the land side of the beam; but anything other than a straight cut furrow cannot rightly be called plain ploughing. If the main object of ploughing matches is to improve the general standard of this work, the object is defeated by the practice mentioned, because the man who earns his living as a ploughman cannot compete on even terms against the farmer or farmer’s son who can afford to purchase a set of special undercutting skeiths, besides wasting half the value of plough shares on the grindstone.—Yours, etc., TYRO. July 21, . 1948. CONSCRIPTION Sir, —With R. Taylor and N. M. Bell, we desire to protest against the Government’s plan to conscript our New Zealand youth, and in so doing quote Captain Liddell Hart, described as Britain’s foremost military historian. “In studying the course and cause of wars, I came to see that the system of conscription had been the foster-par-ent of modern totalitarianism (Nazism). If even peoples who have preserved a sense of freedom and of its meaning are coming to accept compulsion as the natural principle of human society, our civilisation is likely to recede towards the state of the white ant.” It seems to us that to force conscription on New Zealand without a referendum of all the people would be a betrayal of all former “Labour” standards. Conscription for war is a violation of man’s conscience—God’s greatest gift.— Yours, etc.. F. HAYMAN. S. HAYMAN. July 21, 1948. AN UNKIND CUT Sir, —A well-meaning friend of mine, whose generosity I have at times found embarrassing, wrote me a pleasant letter lately saying, “Come up and see me some time.” However, here is the rub. He enclosed a number thirteen (No. 13) petrol coupon! What shall I do—drop him like a stone, or take him to the nearest “no shouting” bar and leave him after we’ve had a couple? It’s most awkward. Generous friends are hard to come by, still more difficult to keep.—Yours, etc., G. WESTENRA. July 21, 1948.

THE BALLET Sir.—After seeing the terrible ballets that have been dished up to us for the last few years, it was a delightful surprise to go to the ballet at present in Christchurch. After the first item, “Les Sylphides,” I was in a seventh heaven, which, however, did not last long, as the rest of the evening was agony. It amazed me that such a talented ballet, which has been beautifully schooled, should give such a terrible programme. Apart from the first item, which was really good, the rest of the evening was a cross between a melodramatic silent film with the stars striking terrified or agonised attitudes, and a very seccfhd-rate burlesque and vaudeville show. If the ballet wishes to put on this tortured show, why don’t they have one week first of classical ballet and then have another week of the trash for those who like it.—Yours, etc., ENRAGED BALLETOMANIAC. July 22, 1948. FAITH CURES Sir,—ln regard to “R.N.R.M.’s” question regarding spiritual healing, the process has a physiological explanation. The one essential for health is perfect oxidation. In disease it is either accelerated or retarded. A study of the evolutionary process throws light on the subject. At our present stage—except in a few advanced persons allied to the man Jesus—the heart is largely controlled by the sympathetic, nervous system, which was evolved long before the cerebro-spinal system through which reason operates. It is in man’s power to decide what his reaction will be to any given stimulus. At present, the adrenal glands, which act in connexion with the sympathetic system, responding to fear and all the instinctive reactions of man, are his greatest enemy. The phenomenon associated with spiritual healing is the release of tension permitting the congested area to be suddenly flooded with pure oxygen-laden blood, through rhythmic cardiac action.—Yours,, etc., M. G. DAVIES. July 22, 1948. Sir, —When in London I worked for a well-known free mesmeric health society. As proof, Queen Victoria sent for one of our healers, as we were called, to be sent to her at Balmoral. I had left London when she returned, so did not hear an account of her visit. Professor Ceccarelli has demonstrated at the Theatre Royal that the electrical thought vibrations can pass from brain to brain without physical touch. I no longer have that healing touch. Faith is founded on mesmerism and science is slowly undermining it and my faith, which such a happy, comforting belief taught us in our baby prayers. Let us still believe in faith cures.—Yours, etc., F. PRATT. July 22, 1948. Sir, —In answer to M. G. Davies, when the ancients called spirit they touched substance, which God is. To H. J. Buttle, to worship God as total Reality is right, remembering that man is the only creation that has the prerogative of being image and likeness —therefore the attributes of creative mind. There are not a number of gods to contract, and substance, which is all reality, is immortal. “Biblical Psychology” has answered his own question, in his quotation. It is both preventive and includes a quality of stability. To “In the Name of the Lord,” but if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you. The body or outward form of the God idea conceived in mind would be as immortal as the mind governing it.—Yours, etc., SILVER NIB. July 22, 1948.