Citizens Say-

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 665, 17 May 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say-

(To the Editor.)

SEXUAL OFFENDERS Sir, — That women have at last realised that they are impotent so far as laws affecting their sex are concerned seems evident from the complaints against the punishment meted out to offenders against helpless women and children. That hanging has been enforced in Australia should be an example to New Zealand, and until we get the right kind of women into Parliament to alter the present laws in regard to such offences we shall not be doing our duty by our families. Men’s lives are cheap in war-time, but in times of peace we spare those who are not worthy of the name of man. B. KING. DELAY AT HOSPITAL Sir, I thank “Interested” for his courteous reply to my letter, but if he reads it again I think he will see that he has gained an “erroneous impression.” I said: “Even if unnecessary delay did occur it is not fair to blame the hospital authorities for the boy being cold.” I did not say . . for the boy being cold because of lack of warm clothing.” “Interested’s” addition of the last six words completely alters my statement. The general impression of the report was that the hospital authorities wore blamed for delay in attending to the boy and that the boy was cold as the result of that delay. It naturally follows that the hospital authorities were indirectly blamed for the boy being cold, which I consider is unfair. The two points which I wished to make clear in my letter were that, delay, if any, was unusual, and the unfairness of blaming the hospital (indirectly if you like) for the boy being cold, which condition could have been averted by his friends. BIG BEN. TAKAPUNA AFFAIRS Sir, Mr. A. H. Wilkie’s letter on Takapuna affairs has not been written before it was needed. Unemployment is to be found in Takapuna in scores of places. During the election campaign Mr. Wilkie's platform was '‘Work for the unemployed, and do away with the contract work which, has caused so much havoc in Takapuna.” Men have been brought from Auckland, and our own men (good men at that) have gone workless. lam sure lam voicing not only the views of the unemployed, but of the Takapuna tradespeople also, in stating that it is a crying shame that all contracts should be so placed out when we have highlypaid engineers and inspectors capable of supervising the work that could he done by our own men living here'—

and just as cheaply. Perhaps it is not generally known that we have a municipal band here, and I am told that members have been compelled to go elsewhere to find work, leaving our band with five or six members.. It is a great pity, as a band is a decided asset to any town or borough. I would ask the council to buck up, cut out contract work, and replace it with day work. By so doing, it will help to keep houses full, and benefit every tradesman in the borough. BUCK UP. MR. ASHLEY, TO MR. LUNDON Sir,— In yesterday’s issue you publish a letter under the heading of “Mr. Ashley and Mr. Lundon,” in which Mr. Lundon seeks in his usual vaporous style to discredit my principle (or lack of same. according to the Lundon “formula”) as stated in my letter published in Wednesday’s issue. Permit me to state that I have no intention either now or in the future of attempting to justify my acts to Mr. Lundon or his friends, but am content to let him “bark at his own shadow” as often as he pleases, and personally to take all responsibility for honestly acting according to my convictions at all time. I am much too busy a man to feel in the slightest degree agitated on any matter sponsored by such a censor of public morals as Mr. Lundon. GEORGE ASHLEY. THE EGG PRODUCERS’ CASE Sir, The reply of the Minister of Agriculture to a recent deputation regarding imported eggs, in effect "that the egg producers must fight their own battles,” is a splendid piece of inconsistency when considered beside some existing facts relating to the eggproducers’ and other producers’ cases. If it is logical that the poultrykeepers should fight their own battles, then let them open fire not on the distant enemy in Canada, but on those on the Canterbury flank —who, by the way, seem strongly entrenched behind Ministerial support, and who have evidently no further cause for “fighting their own battles,” judging by recent utterances. At the present time the price of first wheat in Sydney ranges round about 5s 6d a bushel, for wheat which is wheat, and compares with the Canterbury product as a diamond might compare to a piece of cut glass—beautifully large yellow grains, grown in a climate eminently suited to its production, and farmed, garnered, threshed, and put through other processes by the use of modern methods—not by old(Continued in next column.)

time methods of old-time English farmers and their descendants. I am assured by leading bakers tr' this city that, were the Australian duty to be removed, bread could bt produced at at least one-halfpenny a loaf cheaper than at present. This, briefly put, means that the people of New Zealand—basing the average baking of b:~ead at one-half loaf a person for a day—are paying approximately one-third .of a million pound steriins annually over and above what they need be paying, in order to keep u comparative handful of Southern wheat growers, farming their land in desperate opposition to their soil and climate. The Southern bogey that is always raised, that in the event of a world shortage New Zealand might have to buy frpm outside sources, is indeed a bogey of the haziest form. Every year, in Australia alone, more and more wheat is being put down, and future requirements will be met with ease. In any case, it is better to pay a little extra fo:r perhaps one year’s local shortage than to pay a lot extra in perpetuity. So, to return to and mix my first metaphor a little, if the producers of New Zealand axe to fight their own battles, all on a basis of equality, let the Ministerial trenches be vacated, and then, with the help of the Australian wheat reinforcements, the eg? producers can rake their opponents with guaranteed fresh and New Zealand-grown eggs, without recourse to any ovarious foreign importations.

WHAT DID NOAH DO? Sir, — Since the Rev. A. A. Murray and Dr. H. Pettit are convinced that the Bible is true and the theory of evolution falss, would you permit me to ask these gentlemen, whether, in their opinion, Adam and Eve were white or black. If they were white, how have the black and brown races originated, and if they were dark, whence came the white races? Then, again, did Noah take into the ark a pair of each of the different races of the earth. If not, how can we account for all the various races save by Evolution. And the same remark applies to all the different breeds now existing of different species. Thus of clogs—did Noah take poodle dogs or mastiffs into the ark, or did he take a pair of all the different varieties, many of which are of modern creation? It seems to me we can only account for all these variations by accepting law of Evolution as a divine law. I cannot therefore see how the teaching of Evolution in our schools car lead to a disbelief in the existence of an allseeing eternal Creator. For my part, like Sir Francis Bacon: “I would rathfr believe all the legends of the Talmud and the Alcoran than this nmver»« is without a mind.” C. P. W. LONGDILL Otuhi. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENT “Fair P ay/'—Holding your letter pending receipt of your name and address which you have omitted to send. —Ed. The Sun.