Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1042, 5 August 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

AUCKLAND ZOO Sir.— In an article recently published in The Sun the writer was heroic enough to suggest what civilised man might bo like some thousands of years hence. Physiologists tell us that man. whatever he may be like in the future, is losing his sense of smell and his teeth, and on the contrary, developing an over-sensitiveness to pain, which to a large extent is abnormal. A further extension of abnormal sensitiveness is seen in a minority of faddists who try to put themselves in the place of animals, wrongly imagining that animals are as sensitive to external conditions as civilised man. Happily for the animals, this is not so. If the doctrinaires I speak of extended their sensibilities in a logical manner they would bo unable to live, at any rate, as civilised man is supposed to live. No ono can say that any living thing has less right to exist than another. Yet, when it suits their purpose, we can see those who bemoan the absence of hot water pipes in the monkey pit decorate their rooms with flowers, which are really starving to death, puf up fly-papers for house-flies, and ruthlessly destroy the marvellous work of the hard-working snider. Surely there is a lack of balam o in all this. Neither Mr. Griffln nor the officials of the Auckland Zoo need won*y over the. abnormal reactions of meddlers who, if they looked a little closer at mankind, would find plenty of conditions to harrow their sensitive feelings. FAIR PLAY. AVONDALE TRAMWAY EXTENSION Sir, —- In connection with the poll to be taken tomorrow for the authorisation of a loan for the extension of tramways from Mount Albert to Avondale. I should like to point out that the peti* tion asking for the extension contained the names of over 1,100 bona fide ratepayers—not mere residents, but men and women who have a stake in the district. As there is no possibility whatever of the Transport .Board -ever granting a through bus service, I should like

electors to consider carefully the following points:— • 1. That the proposed extension would be a paypble proposition from its inception. (The population of Avondale is approximately 6,000 and the extension would serve a further 2,000 residents in the Mount Alber* area.) 2. That the work involved would supply employment for a large number of men for some months. 3. That when the new Auckland railway station is opened tire train service will be quite unsuitable for Avondale residents. 4. That the weekly cost to workers will be 3s 9d to anywhere between Symonds Street to ’he foot of Queen Street, as against 2s 6d by rail plus Is 9d by tramcar, to the same destination. when the new railway station is opened. The ordinary fare will be lid return, as against Is 5d by rail and Is 2d by road, at present. W. J. TAIT. Chairman, Mount Albert-Avondale Tramway Extension Committee HETERODOX POLITICS Sir. — Apparently the average man is going to look in vain lor anything but orthodox politics during the present Parliament. The stereotyped game is being played, the Address-in*-Reply debate is gone through. Mr. Coates tires his noconfidence pop-gun, which is. of course, his right, although it was in his term >f office that the trouble started. Con - ’ributory items, such as the orthodox incidence of taxation (i.e.,* making wages instead of profits pay) have I helped to intensify the general stagi nation. Heterodoxy in politics died with Seddon and the man in the stree: } is gboping for some progressive lead, but in vain. In your leader you also follow the well-worn formula. You do not endorse the Government’s Budget (Who does?) so you give a gentle boost for the party which was deposed. You admit that Mr. Coates’s amendment was inept. But what more could the poor man do? IJe knows that any criticism he indulges in can be quoted chapter and verse against himself, and it is hard to see how Mr. Downio Stewart can impart more punch into his (Continued in next column.)

leader’s motion. lie can only accu-.’ the Government of being more startlingly orthodox than was the Reform Party. In his amendment. Mr. Coates is reported as saying: ‘This country i« dependent on its primary produce” This is a favourite phrase with all politicians. Everybody knows it is s'. It has become trite. Not one of the persons whe has used this expression, and who has had power to do so. h:-s done anything but vert- non-committal subdividing to increase the volume cf , our primary products. I am of opinion that the Government could wipe out unemployment in one month and inaugurate an unprecedented era of prosperity if it took every idle man and put him to clearing, ploughing, fencing and stocking Crown lands (or any other idle landsl and throwing them open for selection. This sounds iconoclastic. Of course, it is. It’s not orthodox: Critics may inquire where the money is to come from- if any- do so. Mr. Editor. I will tell them! CHAS. BAILET. Herne Bav. THE CYCLISTS’'VIEWPOINT Sir, — I think that the correspondent signing himself "A. Rare Reflector” on Saturday is to he complimented on his remarkably humorous letter calling the attention of the people of Auckland t° a “Suicide Club” in our midst. But please let me also call his attention to th© fact that he is entirely ■wrong In concluding- that ‘push cyclists” are the unknown members of it. Undoubtedly “push cyclists” daily take their lives in their hands, and drivers of motor-vehicles are perhap* the ones cyclists fear most where their safety is concerned. A cyclist j can conscientiously observe every rule |of the road, but he must always keep a weather eye on motor driver* because. to. him. they represent an absolutely dangerous class. Yet cyclists rarely figure in serious accidents, and recent bad spills seem to have been caused, in a few cases, through the ironk forks breaking, and that was probably due to no fault of the cyclist but to badly-built machines. Fancy the modern motorist with present-day powerful headlights wailing because Mr. Push Cyclist Las® l>a d’y-fitted rear reflector on has machine. A rear-light or reflector I should not be necessary on a cycle at ! all. j In my opinion the members of ’X I “Suicide Club,” unknown to ears ! other, are not cyclists, but i Open the paper any day and you • find it is motorists who are repeated.^ ' trying conclusions with trains. runnir_ j *»flf roads down steep banks and smasn- • ing each other up; in fact committing 1 suicide in large numbers ( Allow me. also, to finish with j Bono Publico.” but this means j Headed Motorists and Rare Jit