LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25048, 11 November 1944, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Law Not Respected Sir—l notice that "Disgusted" wants the law on bookmaking enforced. Also I see that Judge Northcroft intends to see it is done as far as he is concerned. But what would in my opinion help to suppress bookmaking would be to punish the bettors as well as the "bookies." As it is, only one party is regarded as a breaker of the law. To me that seems lopsided. If bookmaking is a crime, so also must be the placing; of bets. One is as bad as the other. Either both should be punished or both left alone. Two Sides. State Bank Proposal Sir,- —May 1 crave space on behalf of all true Douglas Credit money reformers to denounce the proposal made to the Government to take over the Bank of New Zealand or any other bank. As your leading article rightly says, it will serve no purpose. The only result will be to add to our already unmanageable national debt. A State bank can make no difference to the policy in vogue under the present system. Another great danger is that of a mad orgv of money spending resulting in the complete break-down of the currency. As it is there is a large enough increase in the general price level under a so-called "stabilisation" policy. What is needed is a change in the banking system, not a change in ownership, involving no change in the system. A change in the system would enable a change of policy to take place. El. S. Winthrop. Auckland Grammar School Sir,—Mr Salt, of the Auckland Grammar School, calls for an impartial inquiry into the reason for the swing away from Latin, French and history at that school. This, so I discover by using' the method he suggests, to be due to two causes: (1) To the fact that it has been of recent years the deliberate policy of the school to discourage as far as possible any pupils from taking these subjects for the entrance scholarship, no matter how proficient or interested they may have previously shown themselves; and, (2). which provides the reason for this policy, to the weighting of the scales in favour of the scientific and mathematical subjects in the marking for the scholarship examination. Further, is it not a fact that the time-tables at the Auckland Grammar School are heavily overloaded on the scientific side for selected groups of the best forms? Early specialising is against the theories of the greatest mipdern educationalists. As an old pupil of the Grammar School I and deplore this retrograde tendency in the school today. C.F.H. Local Government Sir, —Thanks to the prescience of Sir George Grey, New Zealand commenced her career with an excellent system of local government. Next to the Maori Wars, the greatest disaster in her history was the abolition of the provinces in 1875-76. Many reasons were assigned for their abolition, but, in my opinion, the real one was never avowed. The provinces were disabled by the Constitution Act, 1852, from levying any but direct taxation, and "the landed interests," then, as now, were opposed to the payment of rates, and were anxious to share the plunder of the customs duties. Accordingly, the nine provinces were replaced by 6'i counties. No restrictions were imposed on the .setting up of new counties, however, and today we have 129 of them. The foregoing lines are prompted by the fact that some days ago you published a long telegram from Whangarei announcing that certain gentlemen there had decided to present "a united front" to the Select Parliamentary Committee on Local Government for the purpose of opposing "sweeping changes" in local government. Nevertheless, a drastic reduction in the number of counties is a clamant necessity for this country, and the sooner we have a Government courageous enough to face the issue the better. Curiously

enough, our would-be mentors in the far North are identical with those who are clamouring for another ".sweeping change," namely, the abolition of the hospital rate, which in effect means a reduction of the land tax by a million annually and the abolition of hospital boards! Their demand has been received with such nonchalance by the Minister of Health, the Hon A, H. Nordmeyer, that one is tempted to infer that there is a conspiracy between certain bureaucrats in the Public Service and our alleged anti-Sncinlists to nggravnte the evil of centralisation. Undoubtedly that is what the abolition of hospital boards means. Sound Financb.