Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 11 January 1938, Page 4

Readers Write

I Just recently I had the pleasure (?) ] of taking part in a cricket match' played on the new pitch at Kensington F'ark. To! CRICKET AT comply with; \ KENSINGTON PARK, the rules as ! set out by the | Whangarei Cricket Association, I ; turned out in the required white I j trousers. i After carrying out the mat, pegi ging out the boundaries in four-foot pas'palum andi attending to one or j two other matters, I was in such a i mess that I really could not tell whe- ! ther I was a cricketer nr a coali miner. Certainly, I do not want to i play on that pitch again until the ' park has been stocked with cattle, or i the grass has been mown, i At any rate, I would suggest that ! members of the controlling body take ! a look over the paspalum heads, that is, if they can.—A JUNIOR,

“Reform's” letter is nothing more or less than the outpourings of an ut-! terly selfish man. In my opinion, anyone who has not the REPLY TO grit to shoulder his “REFORM/’ own responsiblities is a disgrace to his country. Why should the farmer be assured of a set income while others in different industries must submit to the fluctuations in the world’s markets? ,

“Reform,” in his selfishness, readily admits that he doesn’t care who would do the worrying if the price of butter fell, so long as he was sure of his 1/IJ. If, just for half a minute, he could tear his thoughts away from his own important self and try to figure out why Messrs Nash and Savage passed 3 legislation during this last session enabling them to alter the payout from month to month, it might cause him to reflect. Evidently, our Minister of Marketing has not such confidence in himself as our worthy “Reform” reposes in him, and methinks that if ever the price of our dairy produce dwindled down again to 60/ or 70/, your correspondent would get a very rude awakening.—DlSGUSTED.

[Readers are urged to make use < of this Correspondence Column of ? the “Northern Advocate,” and are S requested to confine their letters < to a maximum of 300 words. ] $

Permit me to draw attention to a few facts relevant to the much discussed question of amalgamation, or rather “absorpPOWER POINTS, tion” of Whanga-

rei in the North Auckland Power Board. The latter body seems to be at its wit’s end “for the sake of the community” to bi'ing about this absorption. Is it for the community’s benefit, or is it to save their own faces?

The board not only is trying by all sorts of suggestions to mislead the Whangarei public into thinking that amalgamation is a good thing, but they also tried to jockey the Far North board into an amalgamation. Where is the nigger in the woodpile, and why this great haste emanating from a few in Dargaville? There is nothing to recommend the proposal to the Whangarei Borough Council. Take the charges for electricity from both sellers as a comparison. North Auckland Power Board: Lighting, 7d per unit net; heating and cooking, 2fd per unit net. Whangarei Borough Council: Lighting, 4£d; heating and cooking, Id. In addition to this, the balance sheet discloses the fact that the borough council shows a profit of £5048 on the year’s working, 1936-37, this profit being used for various purposes to relieve the ratepayers, and rightly so. I think there is a reason for all this propaganda on the North Auckland Power Board’s part. Let the powers that be come into the open and be frank about it.

Perhaps the North Auckland board has spent the bulk of its loan moneys and finds that the spending has not been to the best advantage. Maybe, the engineer, chairman and members who gave out so many times that a rate would not be collected, are not so sure about that part of it—maybe they actually know a rate will have to be struck and collected. Of course, it would be nice to add to their district, get authority to borrow more and, with Whangarei’s nicely managed and profit earning system, cover up their errors for a year or two. * I suggest that the North Auckland board is “duck-shoving” and is afraid to face up to things as they are. I say, let it go on for another year, produce a statement of accounts, and if things are not as the public have boon led to believe, land as I believe the board members executive know to exist, the nigger in the woodpile will make its appearance in due course.

Why camouflage the situation by talking rot about amalgamation, etc., etc., etc., when all the time another issue is involved?—PUßLlC MONEY (Dargaville).

Accident While Wood-chopping. While chopping wood on Sunday, Mr R. Kilford, of Otaika Valley, suffered a severe injury to the leg. After receiving medical attention he was conveyed to the Whangarei Public Hospital, where be is still a patient.