LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 12, 8 October 1921, Page 7

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MILK IN EOTILES Sir, —I would like to direct the attention of the Wellington public to the new expenditure on the part of the City Council on milk delivered. in bottles, which appeared in your paper on September 20. To go in for any such scheme at the present time is most unnecessary. If the Milk Committee have that much revenue, over .£lO,OOO, why not reduce the price of milk to the consumer and give the poorer class a chance of giving their children more milk? Every one knows that is what children need most. I agree with Councillor Burns that the delivery of milk in bottles will spell dearer milk. I believe it costs now about a halfpenny per gallon fo take the milk to the suburbs in 5-gallon cans. What will it cost when ihe milk is put in pint and quart bottles? And not alone that, but what about the cost of replacing broken bottles? That will have to come out of the housewife’s pocket—more expense to the householder. And then they talk about keeping down the cost of living! It is all very well for one councillor to say he was in favour of giving it a trial, but that will cost £lO,OOO. Again, I say if the council has made so much out of the milk, they should do as other firms have had to do, reduce the price of the article. It is most absurd to quote London and New York in connection with a scheme for Wellington. What we want is cheaper milk. —I am, etc., PROTEST. GOVERNMENT OR CHARITABLE AID? Sir, —As a settler of nearly fifty years, and as one who has never asked the Government or any body or institution for aid of any sort, and I am proud to say the same applies to every member of my family, as also my wife, and also «s one who has closely watched the trend of the times, I feel I must enter my strongest protest against the eternally rushing to the Government for assistance to schemes that I ifear many are totally undeserving, and many others are open to serious doubt. We were recently commemorating the doughty deeds of our first settlers, and are proud of their strong prednality and pluck. I ask, where are the same class to be found to-day? And echo answers “Where?" The slogan to-day is combine, agitate, end again agitato. What with the demands of the Government Service, pensioners of all grades, and doles to this and doles to that, I think the time lliaa come when the name should be changed from Government to Charitable Aid Home for Improvident*. I am proud of New Zealand, and my all is centred here, but I have grave fears that unless we wake up we shall find this fair land the home ,of| the agitator and the everweary one. —I am, etc., COLONIST. RETRENCHED PUBLIC SERVANTS Sir, —Our Government seem to have a queer idea of economy. They ate discharging m'any of the Civil servants, on. scant notice, and almost in- the same breath calling several mehibers to _ the Upper House on a salary of somewhere about £350, the amount which many of the enforced retrenched Civil servants received —men who in all good faith enter-, cd the service expecting to remain in it so long as they did their work well until their time was up, either age limit, or length of service. Never did they think the Government would break their promise without any apparent rhyme or reason, except economy. And where is the economy in this, and where the saving? If the "money goes into the pockets of the new members of the Upper House, men who are all well off and to whom the honour should be enough? Let them bo patriotic and do their “bit" to help tlvur Government these hard times. Do the Government realise how hard it is. indeed almost impossible, for men who have spent the best part of their lives in the Civil Service to obtain other billets. Many of them married men with families, and do they realise what men with families are what we want in this country, a.ud that instead of. depriving such men of the salaries suddenly at such a time ns this they should grant a. bonus for each child. They are spending money bringing emigrants from other countries. Why not help and encourage those of our own country to bring up their children, born in New Zealand. What encouragement is given a man to enter the Civil Service, marry, and bring up a family*if when he gets on in life ho is turned adrift through no fault of bis own and at a time, when there is little or no chance of obtaining any other billet.—l am, etc., A LOVER OF FAIR DEALING. CANTEEN FUNDS Sir,—At the fifth annual reunion of the Wairarapa U.S.A., held on October 3,. you report-Mr. Aldrich as saying: "That the canteen funds were to be ' used for one purpose—and one purpose only—and that was to assist men disabled in the war, the same as the patriotic societies were doing now.” The only inference which the returned soldiers and their dependants (the bene-, ficiaries of the fund) can draw from a defender of the fund for the benefit Mr. Aldrich’s statement is that he is of the returned soldiers disabled in the war and against its alienation for purposes as outlined in the notorious star chamber propaganda scheme. I, and I am sure the returned men and their dependants, will be glad to learn how Mr. Aldrich reconciles his statement at Masterton with his action at Dunedin, when he voted solidly for the alienation of the fund, which if it had been given effort to would have not only given away all the earnings of that fund, but would also have placed the corpus of the fund beyond the reach of the disabled men for the period for which the interest was to have been given away. ; I am sorry some of those who voted against the returned soldiers and their dependants al: Dunedin are apparently seeking a way out bv attempting io create the impression that they did not, support the propaganda alienation scheme. Is Mr. Aldrich one of these? If so, I wish to take an early opportunity of saying that his vote was east with the other votes dead against the returned soldiers and dependants and straight out for the alienation propaganda scheme. The worst feature of this business is that it was all done in camera in a secret wav so that none of the beneficiaries could toll who voted against their interests. What was even worse wa* Hint capital was attempted to be made out of the fact that the vote against the soldiers' interests would have been unanimous only for one man wTio dared to vote for the soldiers’ interests and promised that bo would fight for those interests to a. finish. That man Jias kept his word, and has absolutely won straight out for the soldiers. His name is not Aldrich, but T. AV. M'Donald. — I am, etc..

T. AV. M'DONALD