LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25288, 23 August 1945, Page 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

; Randd Butter ' Sir, —No one minds the rationing of foodstuffs but why hare we to put up 1 with rancid butter? My last half-pound 1 was too bad to eat. Are we to hear later on that the Government has dumped thousands of pounds of butter into the Tasman Sea? If this job is # too big for the menfolk there are plenty of good women only too eager to advise the length of time that butter will keep and be eatable. Fresh Butter. Manners on Tramcars Sir,—Far be it from me to accuse New Zealanders of bad manners yet, nevertheless,/'I think perhaps there is room for improvement. I am the possessor of a season ticket for the trams and I am* therefore continually using trams on all Auckland routes, and one thing obtrudes itself upon my notice. I rarely hear passengers say either "Please," or "Thank you," to the conductors. We hear numerous loud and grievous complaints about the faults of conductors and drivers, but I am sure the' service would be no worse if only the passengers were a little more courteous themselves. More gracious manners would be becoming to us citizens of the Queen City. Jessie B. Lush. Sugar Shortage Sir, —Regarding the alleged over-sup-ply of sugar in l 4 iji, Mr Broadfoot was pretty near the mark when he made his statement. The sugar pool certainly could have had more if proper control had been taken over the growers in Fiji. When the Indian growers in E'iji last year asked for an increase in the price of cane, the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. justly refused to pay it. A commission was set up by the Fiji Government asking for evidence and facts from the growers as to why the increase should be granted. This commission sat at Lautoka, Ba and Suva, but nobody representing tho growers came forward. | In other words, they had no case. The commission was then abandoned. The Indian growers, in a large number <jf cases, cut off their noses to spite their faces by burning most of the standing crops. I do not know what the position is now, but there certainly was a large supply of sugar in Fiji when I left in April, and the growers' acreage was being reduced. Strange to say, Fiji never went short of New Zealand butter. I myself brought some back here. Yet the Fiji butter factories are turning their butter-fat into ghee to feed the Indians, who would not cut cane to supply New Zealand with sugar. •Ex "Kai Viti. Post-War Science Sir,— 1 four leader on post-war science is timely, as we stand on the threshold of ail entirely new branch of scientific research. That Now Zealand is not lacking in the three B's—bone, brawn and brain—has been amply proved by our soldiers, All Blacks and research workers. Among tho latter, one Now Zealander discovered the means of releasing this new source of energy, while another invented public health departments. Is, it too visionary to imagine those two ideas being combined in the not too distant future to give us the perfect method of sewage disposal by atomic treatment? When means are discovered of producing atomic power cl eaply am] under complete control it might bo done by means of a vast number of miniature explosions transforming the sewage into something entirely different and harmless—even beneficial. Perhaps then the Drainage League's dream of sewage fertiliser may come true. And what better place to do it than on Brown's Island ? ' It certainly sounds more practical than Mr Webster's idea of running it out to "deep water" on the west coast. How does he propose to get it there? Over the top of the Waitakere Ranges, in defiance of the law of gravity, or by merely turtnelling under them? And when he gets it there how does ho propose to construct concrete works on shifting sand in the breakers; or to keep the outflow from becoming blocked with sand or broken up by the first ; westerly gale? I prefer science and ! . Common Sense. I