China

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28530, 8 March 1958, Page 3

China

Sir, —“P.J.A.” has expressed his intention to try and raise the status of engineering in New Zealand, a laudable intention. He might explain how China has, according to him, so far surpassed this country in that field. Is it because of assistance from the Soviet Union with highly skilled technicians and finance? New Zealand has many commitments for public works and no flush of capital. Has P.J.A. been assured of finance, from a similar source, to back his project? P.J.A.’s obsession for communism, I don’t doubt his sincerity, puts me in mind of a few persons who “got religion” fanatically. Would P.J.A. be permitted to act towards communism in China as he is here against capitalism?—Yours, etc., HIRAM HUNTER. March 6, 1958.

Sir, —I shall keep on with the subject of China, and not to descend to personal abuse, as is the escape of people who are getting the worst of the matter. “Gedel” asks what we could profitably export to China. China is short of milk products, and we could supply milk powder. She is short of soft wood for paper making, for at present they use partly rotten timber obtained in the north-east. There are millions of acres of new forest but only years old. They would pat more meat products of which we have an abundancy. The Chinese have to pad their cotton clothes in winter, an alternative would be wool. They are extensive growers of tea, oranges and spices. China will soon be in the position to export oil products, as there have been large developments in this direction. Altogether there is a bright prospect for people of goodwill.— Yours, etc., March 7, 1958.

Sir, —As a hard-working fly I want to ask Mr Wheeler about my cobbers in China. He says they’ve been “eliminated.” How? By spraying 4,500,000 square miles with D.D.T. or by giving all those 452,000,000 Chinese jokers a fly swatter each? Here in New Zealand there’s not much fly-tucker what with all this hygiene and water-closets and tight lids on the dustbins: I’ve always envied my numerous Chinese cobbers their open sewers and rotting piles of garbage and stinking paddy-fields. All gone? Surely not! It can’t be as bad as Mr Wheeler makes out because he says “flies are as scarce as prostitutes” in Shanghai. The Chinese have been doing the same things in the same way for thousands of years and even these Communist jokers can’t change human nature or the living habits of 452.000,000 people overnight.— Yours, etc., BUZZ-BUZZ. March 6, 1958.