Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 336, 23 April 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

A RADIO GRIEVANCE Sir, As a “listener-in” to Station IYA, I would like to voice a complaint about Saturday evening’s programme. A gramophone record entitled “Give Me a Ukulele and a Ukulele Baby,” was being broadcast, when it was suddenly interrupted, and IYA switched over, to broadcast jazz from Dixieland. When this item had finished the record was broadcast once more, and this time it was played right through. AgaiD at 11 p.m., when the station was due to close down, another record entitled “Sunny Disposish” was coming over the air. The Jisteners were permitted to hear part of this, and then the chimes were broadcast. Is there any reason why listeners-in who support the station were not allowed to hear the item, which would have ended a few moments later? O. A. F. MORRIS. LAZINESS ON WHEELS Sir,— While walking along an avenue in Mount Albert last evening I was nearly knocked down by the laziest of lazy motorists. He swished round the corner of the intersecting street on to the footpath, where I was, and stopped. My first thought was that he was very much intoxicated, and I expected to see some motoring antics. But he was not drunk. It appears that driving his car on to the footpath at this particular spot is a habit with him. There is a letter posting-box attached to the pole here, and if this motorist kept to the road he would have to get out of his car to put his letters in the box. So he drives on to the footpath, keeps his seat, and merely reaches out to post his correspondence in the box. Had I been about two yards nearer he would have put me in hospital, and had this happened and I went for him for damages would the magistrate believe my story? Well, I’m telling the world before he knocks someone down. ‘TED.” FAMILY ALLOWANCES Sir, — A few weeks ago I read in The Sun that comparatively few applications had been made for allowances under the Family Endowment Act! This set me thinking on the reason for people having several young children neglecting to claim this allowance in a time like this, when the incomes of so many families are reduced to a minimum. Having obtained an official application form, I sat down to studv it. and it surely needed some study. Such an array of puzzling and catchy questions was never, I feel certain, printed for the befuddlement of the human brain. There were four pages of them—asking for information on every possible point concerned with the applicant’s income and domestic financial arrangements; and not only of his own income. but that of his wife, his sons, his daughters above and below the

age of 15. Nothing is left unasked that could possibly be asked, and all finished of£ with a solemn form of declaration to be signed before a justice of the peace or some other dignitary. I can understand a genuine desire on the part of the propounders of this formidable questionnaire to save the ratepayers* money by making it impossible for any but those really eligible to receive the allowance, but a perusal of the form makes one think that her© is a deliberate attempt to frustrate the professed object of the Act —the assistance of the overburdened parents of large families. Two shillings a week for each child in excess of two under 15 is a ridiculously small amount for the Government to offer as a palliative—a mere sop to make good an eleventh-hour election promise; but at least the allowance should be easily applied for and not made almost unattainable by intricate departmental quizzing. Not for ten times 2s a week would I worry myself and sink my self-respect by filling in such a form. I congratulate the propounders on their astuteness, while I sympathise with their victims. ZEALAND LA. UNIVERSITY FINANCES Sir,— I was surprised to see in your leader of a day or two ago so strong an appeal on behalf of the Auckland University College for financial support from the State and public. To quote: “It is a rule as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians that a community gets out of a community exactly what it puts into it.” But does it? Emphatically no, in the case of New Zealand. Did not The Sun itself a few weeks ago rightly deplore the faci that our best brains, well and efficiently trained in a democratic country, haying sapped their country of everything it w r ill bestow gratis, immediately take their journey “into a far country”? And why? Just because these able and clever professional men, who, for the sake of intensive study, have spent four to seven years at their prime, often sacrificing health and always money, simply refuse to be dazzled by the magnificent salaries offering here which a bricklayer, say. would despise with all the dignity of his financial superiority.

I am a civil engineer, and as soon as it suits me I, too, will go where the value of brains is recognised. If we positively can't pay higher salaries, we must be content with second-bes: brains, that’s all! Professor Fitt points out that with better resources the New Zealand might produce leaders equal to the best of other countries. Granted. But, sir, what on earth is the good of turning out such men, only to find we can’t (or won’t) place them in positions carry: aries commensurate with their abilities? Rather paradoxically. Professor Fitt goes on to say that in spite of the superior equipment and staffing °f American colleges, yet t! X . Zealand University man is more effici-

ent than the American. Is it not sible, even probable, that many 01 American colleges quoted are _V r » staffed and their students memciofrom this very cause, vik, too «n spoon-feeding? For these reasons would seek to stay the expenditure higher education, at least until learned to keep such ability as W® . now produce, in the land to wnic* rightly belongs. _ __ _ rrv ji A ONE-TIME ENGINEERTHE GATEWAY TO THE SOUTH The Borough Council of seems to be in a state of over the traffic through its Some time ago the cry of "bottle n was raised, and now we hear otjl* gestion as a war cry—a cons*** that is not half as had as in any sir , ness street in Auckland. " , ops traffic has been the making . lß ji busy little township, which ** never have existed had lt . no . t . r teit always will be, the principal way from Auckland to the az . The ratepayers will be XjtXwd’-at nisli funds to make a tb» parallel to Broadway, InvolrmK purchase of much h , ous< XncUon c n route, and at its J“ n h wt ,rft Khyber Pass to tne thin k death-trap in New z, X ,raffk route* of it. no less than five tram converging on one point1 'One would be inclined there was a number “/JX suggestion Newmarket. The Mayor Khybe r to turn the heavy ® t where Pass into C rowhurst fctreen d haVt . small cost to ratepayers it nue or two outlets—either «- Ul^ oe Hent one. Morrow Street—is an r atepa> e F Now, sir. my advice to> r i is to back the Mayor tar arobuworth and save the cost of an lanco station. MAHOMEP-