CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 130, 29 November 1932, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

USE. OF RATEPAYERS' MONEY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Some four or five years ago the City Council spent a considerable sum of money in widening the eastern end o£ Waitoa road (Hataitai) between its junction with Waipapa road and Matai road, with the exception of one section at the corner of Matai road which was allowed to project about 15 feet. The new alignment was kerbed and channelled with concrete blocks, and the footpath was laid down in bitumen. Workmen are now engaged in undoing all this work and redefining the road to the old alignment. Why? We are frequently told that the council is so short of money that necessary works are refused.' Y^t here we have not only an unnecessary curtailment of the roadway, but an absolute waste of hundreds of pounds of ratepayers' money.—l am; etc., DISGUSTED.

PRESERVING CONTRACTS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—We have heard much lately about mortgagors' relief.. Is it-not time now we heard something about mortgagees' relief? The former get a "cut" of 10 per cent, on their wages; ea_ch of the other gets a drop of 20 pec cent, in his interest, and then pays a similar tax on the amount of interest he actually receives. "Very many will be thankful to Mr. Stallworthy for his statements made in Parliament, and reported in your' Saturday's issue, that the Mortgagors and Tenants Further Relief Bill "will fail in its object and that it is wrong in "principle." He further said" quite truly, "The security of the man who lent the money should be preserved as well as the security of the man who borrowed it." This surely is the only way to have fair and square legislation. As Mr. Stallworthy declared, "Unless some measure of security could Be guaranteed to contracts, contracts would not be entered into, because the money would not be available." .

There are hundreds of elderly people in the Dominion who, for the last forty or fifty years, have been working hard opening up and developing the country, living frugally, denying themselves of many things they .would like to have enjoyed, in _ order to lay up for a rainy day. Their hard-earned savings have been loaned out so that' they might, in their old age, live on\the interest. Alas! in what condition are these people now? Troubled, perplexed, and. sad—if not worse—because in their time o£ weakness and need, instead of the rest and" quietude they anticipated, they are confronted with.poverty and worry--pbssiblypieudo-starvatibn, which1 they .are top- proud- to reveal. ; \. : ■ .-.'.'-: '■-'-. Mr. Forbes has.been..lately '.trying, to enforce the need' o£< "confidence^ in one another"; he has been exhorting folk to exercise 'thrift." i But no one has done more than the Government to destroy the former and kill "the-latter. It is to be hoped that Mr. Stallworthy will be able to gather round him-many other members of Parliament who think as he does and then, do something practical, for the relief of the mortgagee.—lain, etc.," HOPEFUL.

LONG-DISTANCE VIEWS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —With reference to the paragraph in Saturday night's "Post" that Mount Egrnonfr. was seen from Wai takere, . I. have seen it from the main road'befpre it was lowered tit its summit on the Paekakariki Hill just .over the shoulder of1 Kapiti Island. I have seen it from the brow of the Grampian! Hills, about 500 feet' above the sea, overlooking the city of Nelson. Less convenient^ I have seen it from Mount Holdswortb, 4835 feet, on an eastern spur of the Tararua .Range, overlooking the town of Masterton, and from the summit-of Egiriont itself,.S26o feet, I have seen the sea horizon- 121 miles away.—l am/etc; _ • •: '-.'■. : JAS.-R. STRACHAN.

PROTECTINGr WILD LIFE

(To the Editor.) v

Sir, —All nature-lovers and,students who strive earnestly to protect r and preserve every phase of native;scenery and wild life in this beautiful country will appreciate your sub-leader, entitled' as above, published in "The Post" on "..Thursday. Notwithstanding the'- great 'good accomplished by, the Native. Birds Protection Society during its existence in preserving native birds and other wildlife, the eager desire for: wanton .destruction of many forms of the latter, is as rampant as ever with many sportsmen. .',; ;-.. In addition to. the'; rapid depletion ,of species of the native land fauna." great and unwonted carnage, of the marine fauna of the New Zealand seas has continued and been tolerated by. the Dominion Government for many years/ & it wiseto permit wealthy, ';. from other; lands to visit.the; New Zealand shores annually and ruthlessly■'■ destroy many magnificent and gigantic fish of several species for the mere, gratification of sportively killing them? ; As an earnest' lover and protector of animated nature in New Zealand's Zoological region, I profoundly protest against such heartless and unwarrantably destructive sport. It is known to naturalists .that no new area of human settlement on the earth compared with New Zealand in its attainment and preservation of the perfect balance of Nature when civilised man invaded it. On gaining a footing, man set to work continuously destroying the beauty and grandeur o£ Nature, which nature-lovers now seek to prevent and preserve. It was necesv sary to clear millions of acres'for progressive land settlement from the- early days, but great unnecessary destruction has been wrought on many minor scenic areas and beauty spots which: could, and I should, have been preserved for those wlio are coming after, us. . •:,. '■'-~ In the closing years ,of last century great slaughter of seals was reported to the Seddon Government to be occurring in the South Seas. Be it to the credit of Mr. Seddon the ruthless practice was quickly suppressed. The several species of whales inhabiting, the. New Zealand seas are reported to be becoming scarce. Last year a Norwegian whaling vessel-re-turned to New ZealandVfrom the Southern Ocean with a-cargo of whale-oil valu-* ed at £184,000. The ships 'are again on the southern whaling waters for; I may presume, anbther such cargo, if procurable. So long as such work is tolerated by the powers that be why worry at the sure disappearance of those valuable aquatic mammals? When we consider bow plentiful whales were-on the- New Zealand coast when European settlement began, it is distressing -to realise that these noble animals are annually being mercilessly sacrificed with the great fish of our seas for mercenary purposes and ruthless sport. ." . . - ■•.■■::

The killing of the magnificent sunfish m the harbour of New Plymouth on the 17th inst. is a case in point. After harpooning the unfortunate fish it must have been a novel and unique joy-ride for its ■slayers to be dragged about the harbour m a boat for an.hour by their .victim in its dying struggle. 2So doubt other similar scenes are practised by others who enjoy deep-sea fishing.—l am, etc.,

~ ™ , W. W. SMITH. New Plymouth, 26th November.

MR. FIELD AND LAND AGENT

ASSESSORS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln the past Mr. . Field, M.P., has lost 110 opportunity in Parliament of giving Government valuers a dig, secure in the knowledge, that they are not in a position to defend themselves. Havin- got away with this, he is now casting reflections upou the land agents who have been appointed assessors fdu^the various'local bodies to represent these local bodies in the Assessment Court. As a local bodies' assessor and a Government assessor for a period of over twenty years, as well as a farm valuer for many of the leadinglegal firms and lending institutions, I as a land agent resent his reflections that

anyone coming before the Assessment Court -vvill not.obtain justice as.well from a land agent as from anyone else. Speaking for myself as a. land agent assessor, and speaking from my personal knowledge of other land agent assessors, I and they have been trained under such well-known farmers as the late Mr. E. J. Hiddiford, Sir Walter Buchanan, and others, and have farmed our own farms in the past; and, in spite of low prices for our produce have managed by hard work, long hours, and self-denial to pay bur way. Thus we have the'actual practical experience, and I contend that land agents with farming experience should be better able to represent the owners and local bodies in the various districts on account of their local knowledge of the particular districts for which they are appointed. Their business will keep them in touch with the rise and fall of farm and suburban values, whilst their farming knowledge enables them to get at the true facts of the carrying capacity of the particular farms before the Court. It is common knowledge amongst valuers that many property owners cannot get a high enough, valuation when it is required for mortgage purposes, but the valuation on the game property is always far too high when it,comes to taxation purposes.

That land values have fallen vex-y much is common knowledge, and land must come down in value with, the present returns! for all farm produce. The reduction in farm values is only in keeping with the fall in value ci bank shares and other recognised gilt-sdged securities, and all these facts w£i doubtless be taken into consideration "by the, various assessment courts, as by the Government Valuers when making revaluations of properties, as j I have found the one desire of Government Valuers has always been to treat all property owners alike and having no axe to grind show favour to none.

The truth of the matter is that there has been too much bluff put up hy some objectors in the Assessment Court, some owners offering their properties at half the price they would really accept for them, banking on the fact that the Government rarely, if ever, takes properties so offered. The time is overdue when their bluff should be called, and if some dozen places were acquired at the owners stated prices the bluff would cease. Those entitled to redress would get redress whilst the bluffer would get a lesson he would not be likely to forget. It would serve as a warning to others who try the same tactics.

It would be" interesting information if some member of Parliament called for a return of property sales recorded, say, over a period of the past seven years in the Government valuation books in the districts from which complaints came, together ivifJi the Government valuation of the same property side by side. Such returns would probably show that if the Government Valuers erred it has generally been on the side of leniency. The tremendous increase in local body rates has hit all properties, particularly farms, very heavily, and is largely responsible tor the farmers' troubles throughout the country.—l -am, etc., i .

: H. ERNEST LEIGHTON. Land Agent Assessor, Wellington.

TOBACCO SMOKING

•I agree with every word written by Lover of Sweet Air.' This smoking nuisance is, developing,in an alarming manner (-writes "A Non-smoker"). The habit is becoming •universal; among a" certain'type of men. and women. Years ago only a few men would be seen smoking in. the streets, but now -wherever one goes this custom has become worse than, a nuisance. Cigarette smoking among young men, and women is, I think, a* means of hiding .an empty brain. They have no conversation, and therefore a few vapid remarks between the puffs are all one .hears at parties where the company is( mixed. Many men and women do not smoke, and they are generally brilliant conversationalists. Flower shows are nothing as far as smoking goes compared with the present-day bridge parties. Men by long habit have learned how to fimoke, and do not inflict this habit on some unfortunate nonsmoker. To sit by a brainless type and have the air polluted by -the fumes of smoke in lounges, trains, restaurants, ia cruel. -. . . Even at bridge parties, where there are only -women, closed. windows and smoking make the room stuffy to an indescribable degree, and if the air were [tested it would probably be found absolutely impure. The majority of -women "smokerd are shallow brained; . \. .The flower show has my fullest sympathy, but so has the non-smoker, who after a. busy mornirig at shopping in our.big.drapery shops drops into the lounge for a rest, or into the luncheon room for a cup of tea, and 'has to inhale" spine disagreeable fumes -while; she is eating her lunch." The right place for a lady to smoke, cigarettes is in the privacy of her own boudoir. If tfiis -were 'done there would' soon be very little cigarette smoking among women. They do it for effect—they think it smart." '■.':"■:'■■-, "Lover of Justice" also', complains of the smoking habit;,and asks:—"What are the health authorities doing?-- How-many of our boys and girls are ruining their constitutions by cigarette smoking, which is the for'evunner of cocktails and other1 intoxicating .drinks? But' who is going to.stop this'evil'by their good example? The clergy? No. * The parents? No. Doc-tors?^-certainly not. While this depressipn is on/how many sacrifice this indulgence "for the sake of the family,and yet cry poverty while they have money to burn?" ■; ;'■,. "/:-_' : : _ ';■ ■■;.■• :'.-•. ' "A New Zealand Shareholder" suggests that as the Bank of New Zealand has no power at present to pay dividends except in New Zealand currency it should promote a short Bill to obtain power so that English shareholders may not be penalised. Alternatively authority should be asked from, the next meeting of shareholders to make such payments retrospectively. ■ ' ■ .• ...-,-•