OUR TOWN BOARD AND CONSCRIPTION

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 39, 20 February 1940, Page 3

OUR TOWN BOARD AND CONSCRIPTION

Sir.—l notice in your report of the last meeting' cf the Kaitaia Town Board that that body- passed a unanimous vote in favour of conscripting New Zealand’s man-power for war purposes. Though I noticed, too that a suggestion favouring conscription also of wealth did not meet with approval. Now, Sir, aside altogether from the very debatable point of whether conscription should or should not be brought in, I do not see what authority our Town Board has for passing this resolution. In my view, we elect Town Board commissioners to look after purely local affairs—Parliament is elected to consider national and international questions. If any qualification is considered when Town Board commissioners are being ballotted for it is knowledge of local conditions—their sane understanding of and clarity of thought in such large problems as conscription are certainly never taken into account. Further south local bodies seem to have a better knowledge of their dut:es—or, perhaps a more true idea of their importance. The Pahiatua Borough Council (when considering a letter from the New Zealand Defence League asking their opinion on the question of compulsory universal service—a similar letter to that which inspired our Commissioners) refrained from comment on the grounds that “It seems an absurdity that we should be asked to say what should happen to the rest of New Zealand. Parliament is the proper place for the issue to be decided. It is not our business as a council to express an opinion.” The Dunedin City Council came to a swift and unanimous decision to express no opinion, considering that they should do everything to assist the war effort by the method the Government chose. These are only two of numerous similar opinions voiced, and though I do not suggest that members of the Kaitaia Town Board may not be just as qualified as, say, Dunedin City Councillors to judge the merits and demerits of compulsory as opposed to voluntary military service, I do suggest that they have seriously overstepped their mandate by expressing an opinion as a Board. They would, I think, have shown themselves much worthier Commissioners had they just “received” the letter, taking the same line as the Mayor of Lyttleton who said : “Though I believe in conscription and think it is the Government’s duty to introduce compulsory service, 1 do not consider local bodies have any right to dictate to the Government. It is for the Government to introduce conscription if and when it considers that step necessary. Meantime no good purpose can be served if local bodies associate themselves with every self-appointed organisation that wishes to make representations to the Government.” Yours, etc., TOO OLD TO GO BENZINE RESTRICTIONS AND DAIRY CO. Sir.—As one who has had my allowance of benzine restricted due to reasons of emergency brought about by a state of war, I must say that it does seem unjust that all forms of wastage of benzine are not checked immediately. The most glaring example at present in this district is that where the Transport Company recently formed and run by the local Dairy Company is now venturing into the field of live stock cartage. The two carriers absorbed by the Dairy Company did not carry live stock, which class of carrying has been handled for many years by certain carriers who have had regular districts to operate in. By having these districts all overlapping has

been avoided, there has been no wasiage of benzine, and we have had a good service for our live stock. Now we find that although our regular live stock carriers are still carrying cut iheir normal business the local Dairy Company is also running its trucks all around the district trying to collect live stock. Surely, Mr. Editor, this must be wrong. Where is our Transport Authority to allow such duplication to take place? One wonders whether the zeal of certain of the Dairy Company officials to control everything in this district has unbalanced their judgement as to what constitutes “Playing the Game” when the whole of our country and, indeed, our Empire is calling for a common effort from all. Perhaps it is not yet too late for them to see reason, or does, in their opinion, the end justifieth the means. Yours ,etc., REDUCED RATION. DIET AND HEALTH Sir.—Your recent article on Diet and Health may have disturbed the minds of some of your readers and astonished some more. It told us that we should aim at an evacuation of the bowels three times a daywhich would be a very awkward, not to say impossible, thing for most of I U 3. Anatomical points were referred tc in order to explain this suppos’d necessity. It was mentioned that the large bowel has three parts—upward, across and dbwn ; and we were told that each of these needed emptying every day. Now this is all a mistake, founded on the idea that the big bowel is just a tube for the passage of excreta, whereas it is hardly a tube at all, but a series of pockets each as large as a fist, connected by passages the size of a pencil. And its function is to hold the food which the small bowel and stomach have altered, and to absorb the nourishing parts. The small bowel is habitually empty, the large has to keep full and only slowly pass on its contents. The herbivora have also a huge appendix, a blind bag that holds the motion till softened. To expect the bowels to empty after every meal is to have quite a wrong idea of the working of the digestion and absox-ption of food. The mistake your contributor made was to omit to mention and consider a fourth part of the large bowel, viz., the rectum, which is a reservoir, a bag, to hold the material after all its usefulness has been absorbed out of it. This bag it is that needs emptying, no other part of the bowel. It slowly and uniformly fills, quite independently of meals, and needs attention once a day only, unless of course there is some irritating material in it which calls for immediate attention. Indeed, there should be no calls ■from the bowel ; we should anticipate them by daily regularity, choosing some time of the day which is convenient, and never missing. In this way constipation is avoided. For if we waif for the bowel to call cur attention to its needs, we inevitably find that we are so occupied that it is not possible to leave what we ai'e doing. So we put it off, and after a time the bowel ceases to call and gets used to being overloaded, and we go on unconcerned until serious trouble arises. Such things as this should form part of school teaching. Yours, etc., E. S. DUKES.