PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22456, 18 September 1944, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION

CURRENT VIEWPOINTS DANCING ON CHURCH PROPERTY (To the. Editor) Sir,—Your correspondent. Peter Arnold, has ridiculed the idea that church dancing may become the filler of pews. While this may be j a matter of opinion, it would definite- | ]v help to hold together the younger sections of congregations at a time when they are so apt to drift away , because they think their church is j becoming dull. And not only the ■; young men and women, but a good : many of the older members too would , enjoy a waltz now and again. Also I have heard that dancing is i not in accordance with Christian j principles. Why? There is no Commandment which says “Thou shalt not dance,” so what harm is there in it? Why was tennis, for example, not barred from church property? After all, tennis as well as any other form of recreation can easily become a beer party. “Non-drinker, Non-smoker” was right when he said the church is not there when the young people want it, and as there is no example of clean dancing for them to follow they inevitably find a dance-hall where every kind of temptation is placed before them. What a sorry state of affairs.—l am, etc., ADVOCATE. TREATMENT OF FARMERS (To the Editor) Sir, —Mr Thorn, Government member for Thames in Parliament, suggests that farmers who are not able to make a success of their farms be- j cause of the treatment that they are j receiving from the Government i should sell their farms and take a job on the wharves or in the mines. Surely that is a suggestion which farmers would be glad to embrace, I especially if they had no more capi- j tal invested in their farms than the j miners or wharfies have in their jobs, j but to sacrifice years of labour in j improvements doesn’t appeal to reasonable men. Again, farmers’ capital returns are controlled by’ the Government, not so the miners and wharfies’ big wages. If Mr Thorn is voicing his party’s policy, why not extend control to the miners’ produce and the wages got on the wharf? Mr Thorn knows that the miners and the wharfies are under the control of closed unions which would not admit farmers. So why suggest impossibilities? When the Labour Government extends the same treatment to the farmers as to the miners and wharfies, and extends the hand of friendship and the policy of appeasement and permits the farmer to have what he has earned by his own exertions, much would be accomplished to satisfy the farmers’ just demands. —I am, etc., H. HARRISON.