LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18341, 6 March 1923, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CRUELTY AT THE ZOO. Sir, (and I am sure many others of your readers) was horrified to see in the Herald of February 27 -of the cruelties perpetrated by young barbarians on the defenceless animals in the Zoo. Can nothing be done to protect the animals? Is there no caretaker in charge who has power "to stop these youths in their " sport" and report them for the punishment they so riohly deserve? These boys are recruits for the criminal class. Trusting public feeling will be aroused on this subject. A £over of Animals. BOTTLING FRUIT. Sir,ln reply to " Newly Wed" as to how to bottle fruit. Take one quart of water to lib. sugar, boil 20 minutes. Choose firm fruit, wipe with cloth and peel; then drop the fruit into the boiling syrup, making sure that all the fruit is covered. Warm jars in the oven and when filling with fruit put folded cloth on a plate underneath the jar to prevent breakage. Boil the fruit until tender, and be careful to fill the jars until overflowing with syrup before putting on the lid. Screw down tightly in order to exclude all air. New rubber rings must be used every season. Before putting away give a final screw and keep in a cool place. J.E.

Sir, —Having seen inquiries regarding bottling fruit, I would like to state my way. First I get a kerosene tin and open it long ways. Into this I can put six Mason jars, large or small. I make a syrup with two cups of water and one. cup of sugar, boiled together and strained. Then pack the fruit into the jars; it may be cut in halves or quarters if liked; pack well, then fill up with the cold syrup. Then place a narrow piece of board in the bottom of the tin, stand the jars on this, and place paper or straw between them, fill up with cold water and bring all to the boil. Boil 10 or 15 minutes, try the fruit, if soft through lift the jars out and screw down tightly, and leave to cool. When quite cold try the tops to see they are quite firm. I find this a good way for home use. For a large quantity, use the same syrup, but by using the washing copper 10 or 12 bottles may be done with very little trouble. First get the end of a barrel (fair size), bore some holes in it, weight it on the under aide to keep it down — two bricks tied on will do. Put this into the copper, and place the bottles on it, and fill up with cold water nearly to the top of the bottles. Cook the same way. v A Housekeeper. STREET COLLECTIONS. Sir,— an assistant-organiser ana teller of street collections for charity in a distant Dominion, may I be allowed co make the following suggestion, which I believe will prove of great benefit ana help in future collections, viz., provide collectors with small printed paper badges and pins, to be given to all contributors and to be worn by them on their dresses or coats. This will not only more widely advertise the collection, but will enablt collectors to tell who . has _ contributed, and will prove a great incentive to others so to do. The present system of a white or yellow badge only intimating the amount donated by the wearer is not commendable. If every contributor gets his or her badge, I am sure the fund would be greatly increased and more than pay for the extra cost entailed by the purchase of labels and pins. S.J.B. M.C.C. V. N.S.W. Sir, —On reading "this morning the headings of your oabledf report from Sydney of the M.C.C. v. N.S.W. match I looked hastily at the scores below to see if the Englishmen had made 50 or had reached the 100- I found that the poor display complained of consisted of making 275 against a team containing probably eight international players. Now jlr. MacLaren himself does not olaim international status for his team, so that it seems to me a pretty creditable result. On reading the rather ill-natured report through I found it was the slowness of the batting thai gave rise to the " caustic criticism." Of course, it was slow. Apart from Chapman, the rinjs were made by Hartley, Wilson, and Brand, and, had they been so foolish as to take the advice of the crowd to have a whack," they would probably have found Scott, Mailey, Kelleway, Andrews, and Hendry —not a bad combination these —only too glad of the fact. Had Lowry, Caltfiorpe, and McLean been the run-getters, the —about 60 to the hour—would have been faster; but every man to his style, and, after all, the desire of the spectators for lively cricket is not the first consideration. I can picture that gallant fight of Hartley and Brandneither of them nearly of international class —against a very formidable array or first-class talent, and I am »Dre that their injured captain— better judge than the Australian crowd—did not reproach them for not " having a whaok." lam troubling you merely because, I think that there has been lately far too much captious, and often ill-natured, criticism of our own cricketer#, and, as one who has had to put up with it, I enter my mild protest. Harold B. Ltrss- . March 3, 1923.

THE TRAMWAY SERVICE. Sir, There are more important things to bo said concerning the Auckland tramway service than the airing of grievances about smoking. Everybody will admit that it would be a good thing if, as in Europe, conductors announced in advance and in a loud voice (without losing an inch of their respectability), two things: First, the names of all stopping-places, and, second, every change erf section, as strangers sometimes pay 3d or more for a short distance. On a winter's night, when it is raining, it is very difficult for a traveller to know exactly where he is. If the conductor announced, for' instance, "Bassett Road," the perplexed traveller who is aware that the next stop is "Ridings Road," would be able to make his preparations to leave the car. The service would thus be better and quicker. I will add that for a newcomer, the Auckland car system is as complicated as the boxes at the Sydney General Post Office. The cars should have a fixed itinerary, and not, as in the case of the " Remuera" and "Victoria Avenue" cars, - take a special route on Sundays. Further, when a car is crowded and does not stop any more, a sign " Complete" should appear in front for the edification of those waiting oil the road. The three sections minimum is another catch for the newcomer, and should be, to say the least, more largely advertised, to say nothing of the absence here of transfer tickets, used everywhere in the world, in order to allow the traveller to change from one line to another at reduced rates. Finally, the way cars arrive at and leave the foot of Queen Street is ' very widely open to criticism. There, no railings are provided, in the safety zone as in PariS, for instance, to canalise the waiting crowds; the unfortunate travellers look in vain for a sign indicating the destination of the cars, which sign only appears at the very last minute. {It is no use, either, appealing to the conductor or the motorman, to help in solving this guessing competition!) People rush at cars before they have stopped in a way which may cause accidents, and is certainly not, for children at least, a school of good manners. I must add, in conclu-j sion, that the custom adopted here of in- 1 creasing fares and prohibiting the use of concession tickets on Sundays is eminently anti-democratic. In Europe, where there are, by the way, many good things brought about by experience and well worth imitating, the entrance fee to museums is payable on week days only, and those institutions are thrown open freely to the public on Sunday# when the working classes ma; enjoy them at liberty. Bfirxsßinu

""" -'"*l "" " KU 1 — -ifj. : «. ( FARMERS AND POLITICS. t } Sir,As a very old v member of J the New Zealand Farmers' Union, I strongly protest against the aetion of the executive of the union in regard to the Tauranga by-election. It seems to mo to ha simply suicidal to bring out » single can-.| didate for Parliamentary honours at such a critical time, politically, as the present, when the fate of the Massey Government is hanging in the balance. Surely if the executive are studying the real interests of the bona-fide farmers of New Zealand, they must see that the only course they can'pursue is to throw the whole weight of their organisation into the election to ensure the return of the Reform nominee, instead of an insane attempt to establish a fourth party (of one) in an already over-partied House. The very obvious result will ; of course, be the return of an Opposition candidate through the vote-splitting by the Farmers' Union candidate, and the grand finale, dissolution of Parliament and a fresh election costing the country £60,000 at a time when every pound of it is urgently needed for development of our natural resources to stimulate production, etc. The slogan of certain members of the executive for the last two years has been retrenchment, and with that I have no quarrel, but let us be consistent, and not deliberately throw away with one hand the money we have saved with the other. The Reform Party is the only solid safe party capable to-day of carrying on sound, safe government, and I am quite sure that a very largo majority of the actual primary producers in New Zealand to-day wish them to remain in power and " carry on." I, personally, have never been a strong "party man and would much prefer an elective executive, but at the present juncture, if the Farmer's Union are going to throw over their best and ablest friends in the Reform Party, then I, for one, am nnished with the Farmers' Union, and I am certain numbers of others will do likewise. C. H. Mellsop. Clevedon. •