Citizens Say-

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 640, 17 April 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say-

(To the Editor.)

PUT !T OUT OF TOWN Sir, — I read in the report of the Hospital Board meeting - that it had been agreed to call tenders for two and four-storey buildings “in the meantime”; the buildings to be designed as an isolation hospital. The Question is to be placed before the Health Department and that, I take it, is the reason for the reservation “in the meantime.” Well, sir, I hope that in the fullness of time the Health Department will say that the new isolation hospital must be an isolation hospital and not an annex to the main block. There should be no need, at this juncture, to stress the danger of erecting an isolation hospital in the city. CAUTIOUS. SESQUIPEDALIAN Sir, Your correspondent Mr. H. W. Carter has taken the author of the article, “Why the Porter Resigned,” to task for having spelt a simple Welsh name incorrectly. But I beg to differ from Mr. Carter’s version of the word. When I was a boy we spelt i t Llanf airp wllg wy ngy Ugogr y chwy rn - drobwllllantysyliogogogoch. It seems incredible to me that any other spelling should be adopted. If space were available I would supply your readers with a phonetic representation of this charming village name. VERY LIKE WALES. CITY SNAILWAYS Sir, * I wonder how much longer the City of Auckland is going to put up with the crawling pace at which the trams move. ThetP has been a great deal made of the fact that the city has not a sufficient number of trams to increase services, but dozens more trips daily could be made with a little speeding up and fewer timechecking clocks. Dozens of times I have spent what seemed half a day getting from Remuera terminus to Parnell, but a few nights ago in a late-at-night tram the driver delivered me from Remuera terminus to St. Stephen’s Avenue in, I think, seven minutes. It was a tram-car’ too. I got out and had a look at it to see. The excuse that it takes months ‘to arrange new timetables, and that it would be a pity to do anything before the extensions are undertaken, is not good enough. AISTTI-WASTE-TIME. THE LABOUR SURPLUS Sir,— . Your correspondent “Scotia” apparently wishes to have us in a state of passive acquiescence of the poverty and privation which are to be seen

among the working-class t ,„cpie of . this city, and in fact throughout the whole country. No matter what we call the problem, sir—whether it is “unemployment’’ or “displacement of labour” —we have an acute situation, and one that is shrieking for some kind of treatment. Wo recognise that it is essential for economic progress that there shall be a surplus of labour—that is fundamentally obvious —but it is equally obvious that the surplus in New Zealand has been overdone, and unnecessarily overdone. Keep the immigration figures down at all costs, sir, and persuade, if you can, the Prime Minister to cease juggling with our public works. Perhaps we have a permanent army of unemployed, but if Mussolini methods are required to put it right, would “bcotia ’ not like to have a try at it? Some of the best brains in the country have tried already—and failed. EBIN. GEOGRAPHY Sir,— Your correspondent “Dominie” is correct when he claims that geography should receive more attention in our schools and colleges. It is appalling that the people of one land should not be taught something of the lands that lie overseas. I tried “Dominie's” questionnaire out last evening on my son, who is in the sixth standard and by no means unintelligent. He knew where Nukualofa was, as he had once J 30 6". there. Helsingfors, he said, was in Siberia, and Port Moresby •in New South Wales. The other towns mentioned had him beaten. I am pleased to say, however, that (largely through his own efforts), he knew where Otahuhu Kawau, Mangere and Ihumatao are to be found. N.G. RELIEF IN CHINA Sir, a s r f e t hat charily begins at home, ent “WP thld , k your correspond?a' P ' - has the right to suggest ri? i s no need to send relief i'“ UIKU Agreed, the money we are ®. to send is hut a mite compared t * ura that would be necessary tvL ef£eC i-.?' ny deflnite amelioration in the condition of the Chinese poor, but _5 e 5!f S h t 0 Bh . ow that we ate actuated by humanitarian motives. It alt?- 6 to hear someone Koiui vAt/ u. reading that a million have died in a famine: “Oh, \ „ aro „ only Chinese.” That be mu k u d of sentiment that should Of oo- d n vigorously in the name of our common humanity. By all means let those who desire to do so Sverse^ 6 t 0 th ® fund £or relief work