Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 92, 9 July 1927, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

ARAPUNI Sir, — Is Arapuni a gigantic failure? Is it not a fact that after over two years boring and tunnelling and testing, the New Zealand engineers in charge of the operations reported that the foundations were insecure and the scheme impracticable on that account? Is it also a fact that these engineers were replaced by Australians who advised starting the work with no further investigation ? Is it not also a fact that the preliminary investigation failed to find solid bottom after boring to a depth of 250 ft? Is it also a fact that this huge work was undertaken with the foundation in parts an unknown quantity? These are questions that those who are paying the piper are entitled to ask the Government. We are told that New Zealand has more water falls for its size than any other country in the world. Why go to the expense of creating another one when so many noble falls are running to waste ? LAYMAN. “MUTTACA” Sir. There seems to be some disputation about the correct spelling of titree. My milkman tells me that he heard two suburban celebrities in conference round a lamp-post on the subject at 3 a.m. There seemed to be unanimity between them, and both agreed that “itstreetree.” As the owner of a dried tuatara, I may reasonably claim the right to express an opinion on Maori words, and I would suggest leaving them alone. Petone is just as good a name as Port Nicholson: Remuera, as a place-name, is better than Lemuel. We hear the Maori clip the words motor-car to a short “muttaca,” hardly to be recognised. It may yet come to pass that New Zealanders will be recognised by the use of the word “muttaca.” W.D.M. THE WHAU SCHEME Sir,— It is with considerable interest that I have watched the correspondence in the columns of your paper on the proposed canal between Waikato-Waiuku and through by way of Whau Creek to Auckland. The reason I am writing this article is that I know every yard of the proposed route of the canal. And now, sir, I do not know anything of the engineering difficulties that beset the scheme, but I want to know where the money is coming from to finance such a great undertaking in these days of stress. What is going to pay 21 per cent, on the cost, not to mention the working expenses? There is neither timber nor coal on the proposed route. Coal which would be carried through the canal to Auckland would have to come down the river between 30 to 50 miles to where it will enter the canal near the Otau Creek, and the deep side of the Waikato is not on this side, but on the other,, next to the chain of mountains of the Kohonga side. If they wish to make the scheme a success why not carry the railway at Waiuku right down to the Awaroa Swamp? No, Mr. Editor, I do not see anything that would warrant such an undertaking inside of the next 20 years, when there is a greater population than to-day. . , J- GRACIE. Edendale. SHARING A BURDEN Sir. — ’’V.V.’s” letter in THE SUN re the Kiddell tragedy and publicity in such terrible things finds me in complete agreement with his queries. I know the u nlglt 1 read the fearful story I could scarcely eat any tea for the sheer nauseating horror of the who'® thing. Yet on the other hand i” is just as well to ask if these fearful tragedies do not teach us a very valuable iesson I think Mr Harty’s estimate of the case is a very true one indeed, for if these poor unhappipeople bad only been lifted out of themselves the likelihood is that th“ tragedy, would never, have occurred..

at all. They were destroyed by their own over-burdened minds, and, like many other unfortunates, they must have felt the impossibility of casting their burdens upon others. One knows very well that the moment we trv to tell other people our troubles, the likelihood is that we shall be told to shut up, as we are only pitying ourselves. It is only when grim tragedy walks in at the door that we awaken to the realisation as to how much the victims have suffered, while we have stood by and perhaps sneered at them for their “self-pity.” Let us have more genuine human sympathy for poor suffering minds, borne down by heartrending anguish, and then wewill be able to put a stop to the brain-storms which are inevitable, because they can find no outlet other than self-destruction. And it is for each one of us to develop that humane sympathy and understanding which is the only true cure for an over-wrought mind. I know it, because I have been through it myself, and I can say that there is no sweeter Heaven on earth than the beauty of being able to cast one’s burdens where they can be shared and alleviated. And that is one of the grandest lessons in life we should never be ashamed to teach anv child. HUMANIST. THE COMMUNIST SPIRIT Sir, — The public benefactor is a noble soul: he fills me with admiration. I have always been so fully occupied in paying the butcher, the baker and the landlord that I’ve never found time, like Mr. Harold Schmidt, to confer boons such as community buses on my fellow-citizens, and I've a sad misgiving that when the harps and haloes are handed out Mr. Schmidt and I will no longer be ratepayers in the same borough: For him the wings, for me a pair of skis —and a push over the edge. But while there is still time to put the question, I should like to ask Mr. Schmidt if he is aware of the extent to which, the true communist spirit pervades the souls of those who patronise his rickety vehicles? I boarded one the other night and on taking stock of the contents, counted 17 passengers. I had a seat near the door and decided to watch how they contributed to the box. Five of the bunch having enjoyed a two-mile ride hopped off without paying at all. Ten paid one penny. One economist produced a threepenny piece and having asked and obtained change from the driver, also contributed his copper. I, who don’t believe in community buses, and invariably ride in trams, was the only poor simp on the bus who paid 3d! PRO BONO PUBLICO (Perhaps!). THE WAITEMATA HARBOUR BRIDGE Sir,— I should like through your paper emphatically to contradict Mr. Lunn’s assertion that probably most persons would still continue to use the ferries if the bridge were finished. Some 30,000 people on this North Shore would be only too happy to convince him that he is utterly mistaken, and that his views are against all modern progress and thought. One has only to look at St. Heliers, a place at least three times as far from lower Queen Street as any point on the North Shore likely to be fixed on as the Harbour Bridge site. Directly decent roads for bus and car traffic were constructed, the ferrv boats were abandoned there in favour of land transit. Within two years St. Heliers has doubled its population and trebled its real estate values. If instead of that ridiculous and short-sighted policy contemplated—wasting nearly a million pounds on the tunnel under the city (asked for by no one and wanted by only a few railway friends of the Government) that money were used for a traffic bridge across the Waitemata, the f convenience, cost of living and daily comfort of the population of the North Shore suburbs, really the fifth town, in population, in the Dominion, would immensely benefit, and a large healthy and picturesque district within two miles of the city would be made cheaply accessible to thousands now in search of suburban land and homes. MILJfORD HAVEN.