LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 17

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

BIRKENHEAD CELEBRATIONS Sir, —On April 10, the Birkenhead Borough Council had before it the question of what form the celebrations in connection with the King's silver jubilee should take The matter was left to a committee of three, the Mayor, Mr. G. Mills, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Mr. A. Had field, and the chairman of the Parks Committee, Mr. J. Macdonald, with power to spend up to £SO. This committee has not yet met (Thursday. May 2). I have just received a note from Mr. Hadfield, calling a meeting for Friday night, May 3. When it is considered that the holiday is on May 6 and the duty of calling that committee rests with the Mayor, and he has failed to do so, it is evident that this unique occasion is being trifled with. I think an explanation from the Mayor, Mr. Mills, is indicated. John Macdonald. TRADE WITH EUROPE Sir, —Mr. J. Hislop in your issue of May 3 has painted a picture that will not tend to raise the spirit of the farmer. It is so true, so logical, and so in keeping with the spirit of national self-preservation that one wonders that these great magnates of protection and exchanges did not foresee a reaction, and, by degrees, a paralysis of internatidnal trade —and not only this, but that it would create breaches of friendship and understanding between nations just as likely to bring about war as armaments. Even supposing protective tariffs were reduced to revenue duties only, the bugbear of exchanges would be sufficient to retard trade. To think that a New Zealand £1 is worth only 16s in England, and an English £1 is worth 25s in New Zealand, a New Zealand £1 worth only 10s in Europe; then the value of the currencies of many other countries must be in cases almost negligible. No trade commissioner can correct these things, and if we will just think it can be seen how hopeless the future is for our products until an entirely different system of international reciprocity is established. A. J. SCHMITT. CIVIC PRIDE Sir, —I imagine there are few people, who,. observing the pathetic efforts of the various authorities concerned to decorate Auckland's public buildings, will not be left with the depressing thought that Auckland, so richly endowed by Nature, is a terrible hotchpotch as a result of the handiwork of her citizens. Having nothing remotely resembling a civic centre, with all her municipal and Government buildings strewn haphazardly about the city, each surrounded by dreary acres of architectural mediocrity and slums, the whole scene from above must look like nothing so much as a decrepit graveyard. And, as a consequence, any attempt to do honour to such an occasion as the present one is foredoomed to ignominy by the sheer impossibility of getting any cohesion or harmony into the scheme. We have a splash of bunting and lights at the Post Office —the only ojxm space before a public building that is not an offence to the eye, and that is utterly inadequate—and a bit more at the wharves; and for the next effort one is expected to turn into a side street in order to get an out-of-perspective view of a Government building looking coy in a dressing of drapery behind a public lavatory. The Harbour Board building is round another corner, well out of tlie picture, but it hardly matters, since there is no picture anyway; the railway station is miles away, occupying a commanding position in the midst of a barren plain; the Town Hall, glaring sullenly down upon that cynical memorial to a people's lack of oivic consciousness, the " Civic Square," offers another feeble burst of interest after the gloomy gut of Queen Street has been negotiated; the Public Library may be discovered by the adventurous up another side street. And that, apart from the scattered odds apd ends of commercial facades and the pseudo temples, palaces and grottos of amusement and worship, is all we have to offer the sightseer. Did T say depressing? Surely it is abysmally so. Any little country town through'out the province can shame us into guilty silence. Of the dwellers in towns and cities it may be truly said: "By their buildings ye shall know them," and those that view Auckland's buildings and their locations know_ how much Aucklanders are interested in the good name of their city or in anything relating to civic diunity. Edoar Mipdleton. RURAL MORTGAGORS' POSITION

Sir, —I am one of these unfortunates j and come under that category, as ; the following will show. In the year i 15)10, I took up a section of 182 acres j of virgin Crown lands. The tenure i was a long-term Government renewable j lease. 1 pioneered this land as there ; were no roads or bridges to same. I first of all had to build a bridge | over a rivei with a 7oft. span, for j which 1 received no remuneration, al- j though most of the other settlers and j Maoris used this for close on three I years, until the Government built »> j public bridge. I had to cut a track , through fern and scrub over bos.- i creeks for a mile in length to the sec- i tiou, cart timber to build my house 11 miles over clay roads with a one-horse vehicle. Fencing timber being scarce, 1 had to cyfrt posts long distances. X fenced in my half of section with sheep-proof fencing. cleared and ploughed the whole section, with the exception of a few acres of creeks and limestone, grassed same and subdivided into six paddocks. Some of these paddocks were ploughed five times and cropped. I also helped to make the roads to" the section. In 1927 the present mortgagor, who previously knew the section, asked me to put a price on it. it was not for sale at the time, but I put £6 10s per acre on it as the price of the goodwill. Ihe Government had previously bought two sections for returned soldiers, almost adjoining mine, of same class of land and same tenure. For one section the Government paid £l2 per acre and for the other £ll 15s per acre. Ihe mortgagor paid a deposit and I had to take a second mortgage for balance of £650, as the State Advances holds a lirst mortgage over this at present for £260. This district is not in the back blocks now. but when 1 took up this land there was a school of a sort held in an old building with 20 scholars on the roll, mostly Maori. JNow the district as a fine up-to-date school with close on 300 scholars on the roll, the farm being only two miles from the school Previous to this legislation being passed I could feel easy in my mind that. 1 was a secured creditor, even with a second mortgage, but now. after the mortgagor lias held the farm for eight yearn, if he applies for relief, a stay order will no doubt ue granted for five years, which will apply to both interest and principal, and at the end of that period 1 will probably find mv second mortgage a scrap of paper, and that I shall have to take my chance as an unsecured creditor along with all other creditors. A*'«t self, wife and family have slogged and slaved for 17 years. I find that tlirough holding this mortgage, 1 am also debarred from obtaining the old-age pension. or unemployment relief, though 67 years oi age. The Government classes me with the money-lenders. J do not think that even the Labour Party could ciaim 1 was getting an unearned increment from this deal. A Scrap os Paper.

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