BACKWARD TARANAKI.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 14 October 1925, Page 4

BACKWARD TARANAKI.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l make no apologies for my statement concerning the intellectual backwardness of Taranaki. The letter in your Saturday’s issue under the alliterative pseudonym of “Doubleub,” notable principally for its vulgarity, and the effusion in to-night’s Star with its myopia concerning all things Russian (duo possibly to the writer dwelling “near Mt. Egmont” as he says; had he stated “in the reserve” it would be quite believable), would amply confirm my view if confirmation were required. Could letters of such a type possibly appear in any part of New Zealand other than rural Taranaki? If additional authority for the statement were required (it isn’t) I would roly on the opinion of Professor W. T. Goode, of London University, and special correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, who visited Taranaki five or six years ago. He stated publicly that in his opinion Taranaki lagged intellectually 50 years behind even rural England—rural England where the peasant still touches his forelock to the squire and the parspn. Need any more be said?—l am, etc., P. 0 ’DEA.

Ha worn, Oct. 13

ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. (To the Editor.) Sir, —It must b© a great relief to the Aucklanders, to know that the leopard which has been- at large for the past three weeks has been found dead. The unfortunate leopard may also be relieved! to- know that its suffering is at last over, and if it could express l its feelings in words they may be something like this: — I am only a beast of the jungle, A beast with vicious claws; Yet why keep me in captivity When I am born to the great out-

doors? I am only a beast, but with a heart like you, ' A heart that knows its joy and

sorrow, But why does it beat ’neat-h skies so

-blue, Only to be shackled by you on the morrow? When you .are away in exile, Ylou think of home, sweet home; Then why not leave me alone

That I in peace may roam. Again I am free, but my heart is broken, And soon my troubles will he o’er. You caught me, imprisoned me, only to die On som© distant foreign shore. Kn'ow then, so-called humanity, That God made beasts as- He did you, So keep us not in captivity When, our haunts are ’neath skies

so blue. I am, etc.— HUMANE, Matapu, October 12.