“MISREPORTED?”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 9 May 1927, Page 2

“MISREPORTED?”

(To the Editor)

Sir, —There is a well-known story of a Minister of Education for New South Wales, many years ago, who, on visiting Sydney University and being asked to grant money for a new “Chair” remarked that he didn’t see what they wanted with a new chair, but thought that the palings wanted painting very badly. Possibly there are members of the NewSouth Wales Parliament who remain as uncultured as tills even to the present day; but we in New Zealand have generally prided ourselves on being governed by men of a higher stamp. If, then, your valued journal has correctly reported himself, Air J. Horn, Member for Wnkalipn, must stand in a class by himself. Or is it only that the fact of tlie Tasman Glacier being in his o\v:i electorate that has so blinded his judgment that, like the frog in the fable, lie is trying in “blow" up to a size commensurate with the bull?

Air Horn is reported lo have said lliat (lie Tasman Glacier was 12,000 acres in extent, or almost as large as Switzerland itself. And, lie adds, “New Zealand has probably four times ns much ice as Switzerland.” Well, if Mr Horn will look it up in any encyclopaedia, he. will find that the. area of Switzerland is 10,000 square miles or almost exactly 800 times as big as the Tasman Glacier; of this area, 710 square miles consist of eternal ice and snow, that is. nearly half a million acres! Switzerland has no less than 471 glaciers, of which 108 are classed as being of the first-class, j. 0.. over four and three-quarter miles long. Comparing this with the one miserable little glacier in our North Island, and the 20 or 30 in the South Island, we can see how like the frogin the falde our Air Horn appears. Perhaps lie thinks that Alount J.'ook is higher than any mountain in Switzerland. or is it of no interest to him. as Alount Cook is not in liis electorate? But the real trouble is not Mr Horn, but his audience and papers, who can publish all over New Zealand such an amazing misstatement as this, and allow it to pass unchallenged. Poor little Switzerland, with a population of over three millions all scraping for a living on the side of a mountain not as big as the Tasman Glacier! I am. etc., SCRUTATOR. | Nelson, fit It Alav.