CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12279, 25 May 1903, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

OUR RAILWAYS NORTH AND SOUTH.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As bearing on the subject matter of your excellent sub-leader of to-day. the following facts may interest your readers: — The rate of interest earned on the various lines North and South, according to the last railways statement, is as follows: — Per cent. Wha.ngavei Section £4 15 0 Kaihu Section ... ... ... 6 3 3 Auckland Section ... ... 2 18 0 Wellington, Taranaki, and H. Bay Section 3 16 Hurunui-Bluff Section 3 8 10 This is the Government statement, but it is far from correct; as a matter of fact, the Northern lines did far better than this. Last year, in order to make it appear that these rates of interest were earned, the Government charged to capital account, instead of against revenue, as it ought to have been, the large sum of £777.989. Of this amount Auckland, to help its rate of interest, earned, received 6 per cent, Wellington received 46 per cent., and the HurunuiBluff 44 per cent. If Auckland had received 44 per cent, and the Hurunui-Bluff 6 per cent, only, I wonder what the positions would have been? About the same proportion of loan money has been used in aid of revenue on tho various sections during the last six years. Notwithstanding this unfair appropriation, according to the Government's own statement, the cost of earning each £100 on the Auckland section rose during the last six} years only 6s 2ad, while on the Wellington section in five years it rose £4 ss, and on the Hurunui-Bluff during six years £6 13s 7d. Thus to earn every £100 on the Hurunui-Bluff costs the country £6 7s 4jd more than to earn the same r.mount on the Auckland section.

During the last six years the loss made on tho Wellington section and also on the Hurunui-Bluff section was seven and threequarters (71) times as much as that on the Auckland section.

As regards the capital expended in railway construction, Auckland has had £16 14s 7d per cent., Wellington £23 14s lOd, and the i-Turunui-Bluff £51 5s 5d per cent. In view of these facts is it any wonder that our railways have failed? If the same gross injustice is continued a large portion of the Hurunui-Bluff section must soon be closed. It is quite clear that Auckland is Hie best field for railway investment.—l am. etc., ' Samuel Vaile. Auckland, May 22, 1903. PREVENTION OF SMALLPOX. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —We all alike share the desire to save New Zealand from smallpox. How can this be secured '{ i!"ou have given your answer in the leader of Wednesday's issue. It is an appeal to fear rather than to roason, a defence of compulsion rather than of individual freedom. It carries no distinct accent of conviction, and above its generalities not to say inaccuracies— bears aloft the evasive word "scientific" as if it were the sceptre of a throned monarch, " the attribute to awe and majesty." Let me take that one sentence implying that only plebeian ignorance would presume to oppose a " scientific theory," to which a great profession and through it the great English Parliament stood sworn and committed. You write: — " Undoubtedly the apathetic feeling of the colony towards vaccination is mainly duo to the dense ignorance that prevails concerning smallpox. There is, of course, a certain amount of anti-vaccination feeling, but nobody imagines that the average citizen has deliberately and intentionally set himself in opposition and antagonism to a scientific theory which the medical and scientific world overwhelmingly considers to have been substantiated by the experience of an eventful century." Why should it be thought a thing incredible that any "average citizen" should intentionally, yes, passionately, oppose a theory he believes has no scientific basis whatever, and is only one, the latest and greatest, instance of " the mortifying fallibility of tho medical profession ?" For what does he find '! He finds that this socalled " scientific theory" has been strenuously opposed from its very inception ! He finds that this great and noble medical profession, from the first until now, has had its prophets who have protested against, and do still condemn, this corrupt theory. He goes with Dr. W. Scott Tebb through "A Century of Vaccination," and what it teaches, and he at least learns this, that tho medical profession has never unanimously accepted the »7euncr nostrum, and he cannot avoid the conviotion that if all State laws were abolished and all State fees for vaccination withheld, and this profession

were no longer gagged by legislative Acts or biassed by pay and otiicial promotion, it would reveal such a divergence of opinion that its support could no longer be claimed for what one of the most eminent of its members has called " a grotesque superstition."

He also finds a plowing galaxy of eminent | scientists, statisticians, leading thinkers and philosophic writers, from John Hunter to Herbert Spencer, exposing and denouncing this same inhuman rite. Take an illustration from the February number of the Zoophilist, the testimony of three scientists, not young enthusiasts fresh from the vivisection table, but men of high repute, experts, who have made health problems a. long-life study. Sir William Job Collins, M.1.)., etc., '• insists that whatever inoculation might do for us our duty as doctors and laymen is to co-operate not in stamping in disease, but in stamping it out. We are to prevent by rational sanitary measures rather than pretend to cure by irrational injections of filth. The germs of a score of diseases may be discoverable in or upon our bodies and clothing, on the walls and floors of our dwellings, but nature has provided the healthy human organism with such powers of resistance that, as the Times recently said: — ' When medical science Iras said its last word, the best hope for tiio cure of disease lies simply in the strengthening by rational modes of" living the resisting power of the human organism.' ' Yet it is not usually study in the first instance that awakens and impels the average citizen" to denounce vaccination. He may not be able to say, as a recent objector in an English Court said:—" I have been to the shambles; I've seen the calves !'' Bui he will bear witness to experience, his own and that of others, to what he has himself suffered or has seen others suffer from vaccination. Here lies deep down the primary and rational cause of the widespread distrust and rejection of vaccination. They have heard how, after years of investigation, there is a growin- belief _ that the alarming dccay of the teeth, the increase oi tuberculosis, of consumption, of cancer and of leprosy, ■is due to the official craze for universal vaccination. This "average citizen," reading on and following the history of smallpox outbreaks, finds that the socalled " scientifio defence," vaccination, is " a snare and a delusion !" That it has never yet prevented an epidemic, that smallpox cannot be controlled by it, is no specific against it, that it can only be prevented and dealt with by sanitary measures, and that its presence and its mortality are in the ratio of density of population; that, in a _ word, it is " endemic" where and so far as insanitary conditions prevail. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the instinctive repugnance every father and mother feels rises into a moral protest alio resistance, and an "average citizen" "deliberately and intentionally" denounces the pollution of the fair skin and the poisoning of the healthy blood of an infant or of an adult as an outrageous assault upon personal rights, and that his conscience responds to the words of that great scholar and philosopher, Professor F. W. Werrman, as to a moral axiom as a first and final truth of reason: —"Against the body of a healthy man Parliament has no right of assault whatever under pretence of the public health, nor any more against the body of a healthy infant. To forbid perfect health is a tyrannical wickedness, just as much as to forbid chastity or sobriety. No law-giver can have the right. The law is an unendurable usurpation, which creates the right of resistance."— am, etc., Edwin Cox. May 21, 1903.

MOTOR-CARS FOR THE NORTH. TO THE EDITCP.. Sir,ln speaking to a motion on the advisability of the Government getting the main road from Warkworth metalled to Awanui at the late Farmers' Union conference on April 24 and 25 I said that no time should be lost, so as to allow motor-cars to be run on it to open lip the North until the railway is made. Several people, who evidently have not followed the wonderful advance of the motor-car, told me that anything but a railway is useless. I was therefore much pleased to see an article in a late issue of your paper which showed not only the possibility, but the probability, of the motor-car doing .the work indicated by me. I give the following extract: —"Why should the community pay a huge sum per mile for a special roadway for tramcars, and a huge generating station, when self-propelled motor omnibuses, of equal speed, comfort, capacity, and economy, can use the common road and' by their ability to be steered not interfere with the rest of the traffic." Since I noticed the above I saw an article pointing out the possibility of the motor making railways a thing of the past, only fit for colonial Government uses. I also saw some time ago that a motor service was about to be established between Richmond and Baltimore in opposition to the Atlantic Coast railway. The New Zealand Government profess to lead all other colonies, and here is a splendid chance to do it with the present surplus, which, strange enough, is about the amount the Premier recently boasted he had not allowed to be expended on roads and bridges. Now, it is obvious that that surplus should go to some useful work, and here is a grand chance for a judicious expenditure of it. If the North is ever to bo opened up it must be evident that people must have a way of seeing it, and how are they to get to the land other than on horseback? The very best land would be opened up by a motor service (to in the future feed the railway) from Warkworth through Maungaturoto, Kaikohe, Kohukohu, Takahue, Kaitaia, to Awanui. The distance in a straight line would be about 135 miles; the cost of metalling about £65,000, independent of formation, which might be done by machine, which could be very much reduced by traction engine to haul and break the stone; the balance of the £303,000 surplus to go in motor-car omnibuses and trucks. This appears to be the most feasible, quickest, and easiest way to open the North for settlement and get the produce to Auckland. A great help towards settlement would be for the Lands Department! to keep block lines cut and open so that strangers would be able to form some idea of the land they are taking. Pointing out such lines now in this district is pure guesswork, as they are so long cut (nearly a-quartcr of a century, some more) and neglected that they are overgrown and cannot be traced. I trust this will catch the eye of some of our M.H.R.'s and induce them to read up the motor-car service (if they have not already done so), and give it a trial north of Auckland. As I write lam informed that at least three of our young settlers, hopeless of getting a railway, and dreading the future of still heavier protective duties, increasing public debt, and Government leases, have decided to go to either Virginia _or Tennessee (southern States of America), where virgin freehold land can be got alongside a railway within 50 miles of four large cities at from £1 to £1 5s an acre. An agent has been appointed here for the land. The rush for South Africa, and now this threatened one for the United States of America, should surely stir the Government up to open up and settle the land, allowing every man who chooses to obtain the freehold, and help to stay their hand with irritating labour laws, or soon only old men and labourers will be left. The previous rush to join the contingents and get out of the country should have been sufficient warning, and would have been to any people not drunk with an insane desire to work only for one class.'— am, etc., Tiios. W. P. Smith. Kaitaia, May 18. 1903.

AUCKLAND TEMPERANCE CRUSADERS' CONCERT. TO THE EDITOR. Sir —It is a great pity that you could' not afford the space to report fully the few remarks I made at the close of last r.igut's concert. If your reporter had omitted the references to the small dog, and had supplied my appeal to the audience to act Christlike and save their weak brothers and sisters .rom the liquor traffic, it would have been of morn value to your readers. My reference to forgiveness" and " to sponging the slate clean referred only to any of my temperance friends who may have had any cause of complaint against me. I can assure you, 1 ask 110 forgiveness from the liquor traffic, none from the judge, none from xUr. Tole. •between myself and this diabolical traffic there lias never been any truce, and by the help of God there never will be. If any influence under heaven can soften their hearts and cause them to abandon the traffic I shall be glad to hear of their repentence. otherwise, while I live I shall be their relentless opponent.—l am, etc.. May 23. Wit. Richardson.

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. . TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Though a frequent visitor to your city— the Queen of the Northl had never visited the fine now building called His Majesty's Theatre till a few evenings ago, and tnough greatly?pleased with its spaciousness complete fittings, I must confess that one s enjoyment was marred by being confronted with the hideous, ghastly representation of His Gracious Majesty which appears op the curtain. Such a grotesque, miserable caricature should not b» permitted, and I can only express surprise that the enterprising proprietors allow the hideous effigy to remain an eyesore and an annoyance to theatre-goers.— I am, etc.. Loyalty. Wellington, May 20, 1903. COST OF LIVING. TO THK EDITOR Sir, While I thoroughly agree with "Farmer's Boy" in the substance of his recent letter, I think that some of his remarks are slightly misleading. He says that America is the dearest place in the world to live iu.

This I must contradict. There i. „ : .1 I know of that is dearer, and tbaf *1 P,S 4 New Zealand. A comparison of nriL 'ffl groceries of boots and clothing ,7 f' f and building material, and farm w? Wn T ; Will prove tb, Flo„r i, « h ST toll, sugar £16, oatmeal £9 to £]n , f and other stores in nronort;™, ? Only the products of the dairy ancTn L States, potatoes, are quoted 'hiehw V ott T leading Auckland merchant can quote v] ned fruit and fish are much lower ' /if Wo is about one-third of Sow' 7 • H rates. * /j, 6aiar» Boots are imported into \ ew jr., I from America, and can eo mpete w ' colonial articie and nay a 25 n»r , l T Clothing of all kinds rules low ei than hi Fencing wire is quoted £7 10. a I Ser barbed wire £8. Good hardwood I(building) can he bought for 4? p et most States, and roofing iron £11* p u is in that greatest aid to the ' chinery) that America excel?. TUm n to quote a few prices for farm L- ' but I am afraid that it would ruin the JS! land importers trade. He also infer. many years ago the waste nlaces of Am • 1 were developed. This is also « In many of the Southern State's there large tracts of level virgin land as JZ touched by the plough, olose 'to rail and markets, which, can be bought for £ 6d per acre and upwards. Th* SnmT States compare favourable with K ew 7 land as regards climate, and are stipend us in situation. During the last 30 yJ,J the Southern States have been negate? owing to the havoc caused bv the civil «- 7 and the opening up of the Western prairie by railroads so soon after tho war C a3 the tide of immigration to flow westtj.; Now the tide is returning to the South *» 7 and it is possible that in time the SontJ-JI: States may enter the London mlfit » strong competitor in tho butter trade Ever * thing is in their favour— 'to W" don better methods and cheap labour r' the South la bo in is cheap and plentiful ,„3 rarely do trades unions disturb the m! The rock that will .veSf wreck New Zealand (high wages) is too deep down there to cause a fear. p

Another point "Farmer's Boy" m ,i much of is the greed ot the capitalist ic the wrong done by trusts. My own d is that " out of evil cometh good " and th°»i the trusts will, and do, show the hZlf* benefits to be derived from a „ intelligent organisation, Bellamy, in his nJ" Backward- predicts that the strikes will one day bring forth tho mill™ mum. "AAutuI quite agree with "Farmer's Bov", u he says that Mr. Seddon is breaking evere economic law by legislating solely f or 2? labour unions. There is no course which he could pursue which would more surely L capital out of the country, and there it™ doubt that New Zealand only requires capital tod different labour laws) to develop " a ,'- ur « l advantages, and make it in truth "God's Own country. — I am, etc Kaitaia, May 15, 1905. ' p ROGEEBB.

SCHOOL INSPECTORS AND TOP SYLLABUS. ' TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Mr. A. M. Zoro charges mo with in. accuracy of statement in reference to an in Rector s remarks on the teaching of reading The following are the inspector's words The teacher should carefully thresh out a few lessons in the earlier part of the school year, guiding the pupils in the use'of their dictionaries and presenting clearly on the blackboard the best manner in which the ev planation can be shown. . . re -A hundreds of thousands of children all o wr the world mastering a foreign language in this way?" Now, what do those words mean? Do they mean, as I stated, that the reading of our mother tongue should be taught as if of a foreign language? However, I have given the inspector'!! words and readers can decide, kindly recollecting' that the passage in question refers to children ranging from five to 14 years of age, who are compelled so to " master" in a year of 40 weeks over 450 pages of reading matter, or over 10 pages a week!— am, etc., A 'Spectator.