LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17040, 23 December 1918, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE DOOR OF HOPE. Sir,—Having noticed the appeal in tho Herald, on behalf of the Door of Hope, I feel it only right to 98.V that during the epidemic the home rendered Rumble assistance. The matron, though attending to her work at the home during the dav, did night duty at tho Technical College hospital the whole time it was in use. The girls looked after the children of families round about, and took food to different homes; others worked at tho Y.W.C.A. To my mind the proof of the good work being 'done with these girls is the fact that tlio matron put them on their honour and left them under the care of a young assistant, and not one caused a moment's anxiety, but all proved they appreciated tho trust placed in them. What higher result could one wish ? An Onlooker.

SUBURBAN SHOP HOURS. Every sympathy is extended towards shop assistants in the reduction of working , hours to a regulated and fair standard. But there are numerous shops where groceries are permitted to be sold conducted without employment of wagedassistants, and it is felt that the Labour Department should be empowered to grant same concession in the matter of hours to those businesses, or, wheio assistants are employed, restriction of hours should only apply to them. At least an extension of hours, optionally, to 8 p.m. cciild he allowed to such businesses. They exist mostly in the suburbs, where many people are so circumstanced that they would considerably benefit in being able to purchase some necessities niter arrival within their home suburb from city occupations. Geo. F. Cvrtis.

AUCKLAND'S SHARE OF LOANS. Sir,—Referring to my contention re allocation of loans for public works, the I Herald shows a proposed international j loan of £20,000,000.000, to ho distributed on a basis of pouulation find production. Surely wo can bo as just as the rest of the world. If our loans are to be based | on the European standard of morality and j justice our district should receive one- ; fourth of the total amount of loans. In I production it reaches one-fourth of the exports—£B,ls3.s66 out of £32,075,907, ' or 80 per cent, of the total export of the j South Island. If based on population. 1308.000 out of I.loo.ooo—one-third. In I area-, one-f0urth—16,532,960 acres out of , 66.292.332 acres for the whole Dominion. ' All these items point to a fairer distrij bution of future loans than in the- oast. The public works policy of 1870 was born ' in political corruption, and has been nurtured and matured on the same political | bottle, over since. Now that we have reached political manhool we require a I greater recognition of what is just and fair. Some of us have not foreotten 1883, ; when political corruption and unfairness j in the distribution of our loans was such ; a, scandal that four Auckland members went over from their niinport of Sir George Orpy to Sir John Hall, and the outcome : was aji earmarked loan of £1.000.000 I placed on the statutes of the Colonv for I a railway line to be constructed from TaraI naki to Te Awarnntu. This was purely a I loan for Auckland an* Tarn naki provincial districts. What actually happened • was that £522,389 was snent in the Wei- . linc+on provincial district and only 1 £310,030 spent in railway construction in (he Auckland district out of the million , loan. This unequal distribution of loans ! for nublio works will occur in those 1 pending, unless we have more safeguards , than the scraps of paper such as the ; statutes of the Dominion represent. With i one-third of the Ministry and one-fourth ' of the House of Representatives elected in the Auckland provincial district, surely I we o'uffht to have as much conscientious 'objection to unfair allocations of the future as in 1883: and the only hope is to see the money planked down in lump sums to he fairly distributed. P. E. CttEAl.

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"Na.'.oi for Influenza and Catarrh."

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