Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 714, 13 July 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

STREET REPAIRS Sir.— We hear and read a considerable lot about unemployment. One wonders if any of our city councillors are at all observant when walking along our streets. The dilapidated state of our footpaths—for instance, Wellesley Street West and Victoria Street-West —is obvious to the casual observer. Wellesley Street is dangerous for pedestrians to walk upon. The lower end is full of patches, lumps and ruts and pools of stagnant water. Where is our tar and sanding plant these days? It is about time something of a finish was given to these streets. It would probably be a help to the unemployed to put those streets in a proper and fit state for pedestrians. INTERESTED. “ALL QUIET” Sir. — If the public of Auckland wishes to show that it wants to have the PublicLibrary run as a public utility there is an obvious way of showing emphatic resentment of the recent action of the authorities. Personally, I was considering subscribing to the library this winter, but the foolish ban upon Remarque’s book has made me decide not to. It is quite evident that in Auckland the powers who run the Public Library require to be taught a sharp lesson. R. M. THOMSON:. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS Sir,— I should like to convey to the two young students, Messrs. Richards and Miller, my personal admiration for the stand they are taking. In the interest of world peace it seems to be necessary that someone should be prepared to pay the price. That the youth of any country should be called upon to practise the art of human slaughter seems strange indeed, especially when viewed in conjunction with out boasted Christian civilisation. I believe that “there comes a time in the progress of society when the duty the citizen owes %o his country is to disobey the commands of his Government.” It may be that these two budding parsons look at it that way, too. Quite apart, however, from the

rightness or wrongness of their position. who can but admire their courage? It is refreshing to find young fellows who do think these days. CHARLES CHANDLER. CROWDED BUSES Sir, — * Can you find room in your paper lor tliis letter? Does Mr. AUum think that the trams and buses belong to the Transport Board or to the people of Auckland City and suburbs. We want to see members of the Transport Board appointed by the ratepayers. According to the suggestions of some members Mr. Morton is not fit for the Transport Board. If they were half as good as lie there would not be the trouble there is with this body. Several of the buses are licensed to carry only 28 and 40 passengers. How much longer are they going to play about with these licences. In the busy times there are as many as 55 passengers on a bus when it should carry only 40. On a bus for 28 passengers there are not infrequently 42. If these were private companifs' buses there would be no end of trouble with the Transport Board. RATEPAYER. WHOLESOME PRISONS Sir. — There is no disguising the fact that thoughtful citizens are uneasy about the conditions prevailing in some of our prisons, difficult though it is to ascertain what these are in the face of the conspiracy of silence maintained about them. The mere fact that over 60 per cent of inmates have been there before shows that these prisons tend to punish rather than to cure, and yet with serious crimes constantly increasing, this punishment has evidently failed even to act as a deterrent. Knowing that in these old prisons m“n of all ranks are herded together with little classification in conditions which undermine self-respect, we may well ask ourselves if this noble ideal of “proper punishment” and nothing else does not manufacture “proper criminals.” As a great English lawyer has lately said, we need to approach problem of the cure of moral ill-health in the modern scientific spirit, In place of the emotionally revengeful one no.w (Continued in next column.)

so hopelessly out-of-date and inadequate. Yet efforts made to let in the light of modern methods of education and mental and moral training for good citizenship are too often blocked, and the administration is keyed down to fit the needs of the 10 per cent, of moral imbeciles always to be found in such communities. It is curious to find that a “visitor” or official criticising conditions is oftsr. adversely regarded by the department as if the prisons were its private property with which the public which pays for them has no concern! A Citizens’ Committee to share responsibility with prison authorities is an excellent suggestion of your correspondent “Humanity.” It is certain that it would soon demand the emptying of these depressing old. dungeons which can have nothing reformative about them, and the bringing out of the inmates to a wider Iff* of real hard work for self-support and the development of their social instincts along right lines. MEDICO, EVOLUTION Sir. — Kindly permit me to bring under tb« notice of your readers a statement made by Mr. Bell Dawson. M.A.. D-S«* In discussing the proposition that oneeelled creatures have a special tendency to develop into other things h« says: “There is at the present time as much variety in this one-celled world of bacteria and protozoa, as in all the flora and fauna at the higher levels above them. The disease germ* represent the lions and serpents among them, which are aggressive and poisonous. “These one-celled creatures are m the most primitive condition in which plant and animal life can possinjy exist. If therefore the single cell is tn# ancestor of all that lives, it is in tpe realm of these humble creatures we would expect to find the greatest susceptibility to speedy transformation into higher species, if any evolutionary forces operate at all. “There is no better field for observation, for their propagation is so rapid that it is possible for their numbers to double every half-hour. \Vher® progeny is produced so rapidly, if «d> change from one species to another occurs in nature, it ought to be possible to detect it here. “Among the many classes of these one-celled creatures, the disease germ* have probably received the moft crucial and exacting study, and tn« most advanced methods of research have been brought to bear upon thernThis has shown that throughout their propagation each species remains fixed in type. If these germs were to chan£| with ready compliance into sometlaM* different, transforming themseive# m other species, it would put an ettAJg bacteriology as a science: for such instability, there could no be an established relation between • disease with all its special symptom* and the definite germ which product* it. It is thus evident that biologic** science has to rely upon the primal fact revealed in. Scripture, tna every living thing reproduces ltsei* ‘after its kind.’ “If this were not so. the bacter.Qlogist would be as completely at a logs as the chemist would be if phy*! ca laws acted at random.” C.H.G. NOnCE TO CORRESPONDENT Otahuhu - do not your n?.mi