Dear Sir,

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 41, 17 April 1942, Page 4

Dear Sir,

Letters to the Editor must be clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a no ro-de-plume is used the name of the writer must be included for reference purposes. The Editor reserves the nghi to abridge* amend or withhold any letter or letters. EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE

Sir, —In reply to your footnote to my recent letter, in which I pointed out the standard rates of pay for carpenters in New Zealand, you try to back up your statement about carpenters earning £3 per day, by quoting one isolated case of a carpenter, showing a cheque for £20. Avhich he told your reputed informant was a week's wages. On hearsay, you publish a statement asserting that carpenters in general are earning £3 per day. Would it nob have been wiser to have got in touch with some of the labour unions concerned and get reliable information right from the "horses mouth" before you publish such wild statements. I sincerely hope, another reputed authority such as the BBC does not inform you, that Jonah swallowed the whale. I, personally know of no military job in New Zealand where a carpenter is paid by cheque, so perhaps ycur informant had a few beers in, when he told you about the carpenter with the £20 cheque for a week's work. Maybe, he got a little tangled up whether it was a week, two weeks or three weeks. Your reference to the writer's qualifications to earn £20 per week is poor argument to substantiate your statement, even if the writer could not qualify to earn same in ten years. One thing, I can assure you on, is the writer has neither the desire nor the intention to .xvork those hours as I have previously stated at a set rate of pay to earn £20 per week, war or no war.

Your further statement about soldiers getting 7/- per day, while "others selfishly line their jiockets," needs a little investigation. Do you suggest that the working classes who are trying to keep pace with rising cost of living are doing so. You did. not mean that 80 Members, of Parliament drawing about £600 per year in addition to their own private incomes and profit, were among these selfish ones. You like the Pukekohe scheme, yet you knew full well, that all these birds who have been ral# ing in fat dividends, fat salaries and profits can well afford to sit back on 7/~ ifl the name of patriotism, while the soldier is compelled to take 7/- per day. You would not suggest to those howling about winning the war, that soldiers, should receive £2 per day, so that their dependants could meet increased living costs and a reduction of all salaries from £7.100 down to £500, and confiscation of all profits to meet the extra payment to soldiers. Oh, no.' I quite understand the one track policy of "the press, and the stuff that is published to suit tho palates of those it represents, but what I can assure, .Mr Editor, is, that the. writer has not got the qualifications to swallow it. Yours* etc., STAN EYANS.

(We have merely told\he facts as (•elated to us but if dent is determined to reaqfcevil into a subject where it is neijlier intended nor present we cannot do further than to* refer him to the reputed propensities of empty vessels, and leave him to arrive at a per-* sonal conclusion. Ed.) MAORIS IN COURT " Sir, —May I venture to raise my voice in warning at the growing number of young Maoris who are filling our Police Courts. For some time past I have noted with no little apprehension the native cases which are lilling the local police records and Wednesday's court list made me hesitate no longer. Mr Editor, mark my words, unless some better method is evolved of training these young men or better still, of, occupying their spare time in a useful and profitable manner there will be rocks ahead for the Eastern Baj r of Plenty. In a population of 12.000, with the Maori less than half we find a continual stream of Maori offenders appearing before; the courtThe predominance of Maoris against the Pakehas must be many hundreds to one. Let me sketch sotm© of the offences —theft, breaking and entering, drunkenness, fighting, evad(Continued in previous column)