LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17696, 3 February 1921, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

BAYFIELD SCHOOL. Sir, —The parents of Ponsonby would very much like to know who is responsible for having the playgrounds tarred on the very day school opens. Surely those in authority could have exercised a little common sense and had this work put through during the six weeks' vacation. The school had been thoroughly cleaned by the caretaker, only to be filled with tar and sand within an hour after the school opened, and our children, with their nice white summer clothing, returning to their homes spotted with tar. Parent.

INFANTILE PARALYSIS. Sir, —When the yachting people reminded the chairman of the Harbour Board about his unfulfilled promises re a boat harbour, he replied in a dignified manner " Business before pleasure and to support this statesmanlike reply, he quoted extracts without contexts, rendering it a pretext. At present infantile paralysis is very pronounced in the South, and we have steam communication to and fro. .This is a business proposition. What does the chairman intend doing as regards the extermination of the disease-spreadine rats? They are as numerous as the hairs on one's head (full growth) about the wharves and sheds. Anxious. THE POULTRY INDUSTRY,

Sir,— Poultry Farmer," in Monday's issue, sounds a true note of warning to all who contemplate going in for poultry for a living. Take my case: I aan a returned soldier, and owing to the nature of my wounds, went in for poultry farming as I was compelled to take an outdoor job or go under. My health is improved, but 1 am wr £200 poorer to-day than when I started two years ago. My feed bill is now over £5 a week, and my birds are laying eggs to the value of less than £1 a I am getting less for mv eggs *>-day than I got in the flush of the srason (September). The Government will insist on returned soldier poultry farmers paying their interest. Yet, "in spite of the efforts of the New Zealand Poultry Association, and much correspondence on the matter, this same Government absolutely ignores our claims to consideration in the matter of imported eggs and pulp. Australia protects the returned soldier poultry farmers. Many of them are short of a "leg or aii arm, and they are otherwise worthy of reasonable consideration. Obpingtox.