PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21199, 23 August 1940, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondent# whose letters are welcome, but tor whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in Ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule Is complied with, their letters will not appear. "HOSTILE TAXATION” (To the Lai tor) Sir,—Here is an illustration of hostile taxation. It is by uo means an isolated one. Take the case of a domestic worker earning £1 a week. For that £1 she is deducted 2s, and for board allowance (£1) she is deducted yet another 2s. Hence, she is taxed 4s in the £1 she earns, thus reducing it to 16s. Vet some still look upon the present administration as a workers' Government. Believe me, there are thousands throughout the Dominion only doubly anxious to record a vote next year.—l am, etc., HARRY WOODRUFFE. Auckland* August 20. UNION OR PRIVILEGE (To the Editor) Sir.—ls "Cambridge Ratepayer’s" effusion a genuine concern tor the welfare of the nurses or merely an inference that funds to which he hints he has contributed a mite arex being wrongly administered? Cate no-one think except in terms of £.s.d.? Picture Florence Nightingale demanding a Union! Her lamp would have gone out without a flicker, and so would the hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers whose lives were saved by her voluntary efforts. Does “Ratepayer” forget that nurses in hospitals are receiving an intensive education and training—a valuable asset —equivalent to university training, for other professions, for which students pay hundreds of pounds a year? One is thankful that the worthwhile women who take up this work do not ask, “Pay me well for what I do,” but "Help me to help my fellow beings!" Years ago when conditions existing for nurses were infinitely more rigorous, there were waiting lists—not a shortage—of applicants. May not that shortage today be due somewhat to the difference in calibre of the young women now growing up? Indolence, abnormal love of pleasure and lack of altruism do not create inspiration to take up such necessarily self-sacrificing work as nursing. If nurses have to stoop to protect themselves with a union, God help their work, their patients, doctors,—yes, and the nurses themselves. Ask them; they need no union; they have esprit de corps.— I am, etc., ESPRIT DE CORPS. Hamilton, August 22.