Citizens Say-

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 664, 16 May 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say-

(To the

Editor.)

“NOT UNDERSTOOD”

Sir, — In these modern days we are taught to believe in a penal reform which operates by gettin-g at causes. Yet we frequently hear from Judges that they “cannot understand” sex cases. After all, is that not the function of the Judge more than anyone? Surely to them understanding is the only possible guide; otherwise, how can they possibly judge all? If a person be obviously mentally unbalanced, then surely psychology is the only means of interpretation. Behind every crime lies the mental cause. HUMANIST. HOSPITAL DELAY Sir, — While I have no particular wish to enter into the question of hospital delay or efficiency, as the case may be, I could not help noticing the erroneous impression secured by “Big Ben.” As a reader of The Sun’s report, it was clear to .me that the hospital authorities were not being blamed for a boy being cold because of lack of warm clothing. Rather were they taken to task for bringing about conditions which resulted in his becoming cold—a slightly different thing. Perhaps, as “Big Ben” says, these delays are unusual, but they should not occur at all in an institution like the Auckland Hospital. Anyway, if all was well, why did the authorities refuse to make any comment? INTERESTED. MR. LUNDON AND MR. ASHLEY Sir, In Wednesday’s Sun, Cr. Gorton George Ashley has attempted to excuse his breach of faith with the municipality and with the Progressive Citizens’ Committee. He postulates that the unrestricted publication of his own name as a guarantee of integrity and good faith in support of the series of flaming advertisements (which, presumably, he helped to pay for) containing (inter alia) a persistent pledge to a “review of the personnel of the Transport Board after the poll, and replacing by elected members of the council any who may not be elected” was secretly conditioned with his own mental reservation that his word was inoperative against Mr. J. A. C. Allum should that gentleman’s name figure (as it now does) on the electors’ Index Expurgatorius. Cr. Ashley omits to state whether the position would have been the same had the electorate dowpthumbed the candidature of himself or the Mayor, or of Crs. Entrican, Coyle, Phelan —not one of whom, according to Ashleyan arithmetic, measures up in ability to Transport Board chairmanship requirements. His confession of this incompetence

of the remaining five k? a cogent argument why he ought to support Cr. Murray’s Mayor-muzzled motion to remove the Big Six. Has Cr. Ashley forgotten Allum’s sworn statement (as Tramways Committee chairman) before the Transport Commission on May 9, 1928, that “the council considers that legislation should be passed empowering it to raise money for (tram) extensions approved by the Public Works Department and the Local Government Loans Board without the necessity of taking a poll?” And does Cr. Ashley know of Mr. Allum’s repeated denials at the Mur-ray-Lundon Town Hall meeting on the 6th inst., of his ever having approved of any suggestion for the raising of loan money without taking a poll of the city ratepayers? J. R. LUNDON.

“ABSURDITIES OF SCIENCE” Sir, — Science has now brought us to this: Two nothings, one called “positive,” the other “negative,” for the sake of convenience, operating in an unlimited quantity of another nothing called time, which cannot be said to exist and which can be neither proved nor disproved, have sorted themselves out and adopted various gyrations and velocities—apparently because they had to do something (One may ask — why?) From these have “evolved” (another nice word which begs every question) not only all the material world around us, but the brain, nerves, senses, which can conceive and perceive and which, in conceiving and perceiving begin to show some reason in what would otherwise be quite without: intelligence—all order and law otherwise existing, not/ only out of nothing, but for nothing. It is indeed a queer kettle of fish, the kettlo nothing and the fish nothing, even tho shapes, etc., being now stated as “relative,” and therefore, in the ultimate, only imaginary. Poor science! The old lady who knows that “God is, and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” has a standing which mere brain can never make. A. E. ROBINSON. VALUE OF ORE Sir,— Having read Mr. H. Crawford’s lecture given at the annual meeting of the Thames School of Mines. I beg space in your paper to make a few remarks. In general, the lecture was a summary of information derived from past records. It is when I come to the words “ore in sight” and the estimated value of' such ore that I take exception to Mr. Crawford's remarks. Referring to rough measurements of LCon-tinued In next Column)

fair localities, Mr. Crawford says:— “No. 1 Region—From sea-level 13.750,000; taking the lowest value extracted. Is 9d, and allowing 46 per cent, extraction. 1 believe that this hill on a low estimate contains bullion worth £2,578,125" Now, I quite agree that it is definitely possible to calculate the number of tens of ore contained in certain dimensions, but I do not agree that it is possible to assess the value of a deposit of ore by simply samplingthe surface of such ore deposit. I say positively that to state that the value of a deposit of ore as from pea-level to the surface without first ascertaining the average value, is misleading. I not a that he gives no indication as to what would be the cost of equipping a mine successfully to operate on low-grade ore, and for the information of the public I will make a lex remarks. The capital required to equip a lowgrade mining proposition is enormous. Tho smallest economical plant would require at least £IOO,OOO. Secondly, it must be definitely proved that the quantity of ore in sight contains »ulficien: value and that such value can be extracted profitably; that there is sufficient profit, firstly, to provide for a sinking fund to repay the invested capital, and secondly, to pay at lea.-i 10 per cent, interest on capital as well The teasons that low-grade mining is prominent in the eyes of the investing public: in other countries is that machinery has displaced manual labour in mining and that improved methods of treatment have enabled a higher rate of extraction from ore treated. There are enormous deposits of lowgrade ore in the Hauraki goldfields, and this phase of mining offers a possibility of resuscitating the mining industry here. QUARTZ. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENT "F is ho.”—Surely.