CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17106, 30 March 1921, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

♦ A SIGN OF WARP TO TOE EDITOR Or "THE PRESS." Sir, —I would esteem it a favour if some students of Maori legend could' supply me with the legend of the moon and two stars forming a psrfe:t triangleI believe I am right in supposing that this sign in the heavens is, according to the legend, a sign of war. Furthermore, I have a recollection of this phenomenon being observed sr.me tew months before the great war; I can distinctly remember noticing it myself. My attention has boon aroused by the reappearance of this same jiliennmenon: both at last and also tin? full moon. On a clear night it may be observed that the moon and these two stars at present form a perfect triangle. Can this be a sign of another great war? I am willing to concede that I may be only imagining such a legend to exist. But I shall be glad if anyone could either dispel or confirm my supposition. —Yours, etc., CURIOUS. March 25th. THE PROBLEM OF LIFE. TO TUB EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —I am glad to find that there are other puzzlers besides myself over the problem of life. It gives one a sense of comradeship. But I am afraid that I am too occidentally practical for the profitable comprehension of Oriental, mysticism, and transcendentalisms' What I especially feel, is, that our teachers simply leave off where, from its primary importance, they should really begin, so that from them we obtain little useful help. Doubtless, science and religion have latterly been drawing towards each other. In the near future, therefore, one niay hope that there will be no religion which' is not demonstrably scientific, and no science which is incompatible with religious beliefs. Are, however, in the meantime, such finite entities as by common consent wo regard ourselve'3 worthy of a Creator possessing- the ability and power to evolve beings so infinitely superior? And how could such a Creator possibly have been satisfied with handiwork so palpably imperfect, and so foreign to nis own creative nature P But the Bible .specifically states, that the Divine handiwork was not of this unsatisfactory character, but -was an ideal man, in every way pleasing to his Maker. It also further states that without God was not l anything made that was made. Do not then these combined statements force the conclusion, th.at the perishable man, subject to all the ills to which human flesh is heir, h not only utterly unworthy of such nn artificer, but is a pure invention—however realistic—of the human brain ? ■ ~ It is quite easy to assert'that the material man, as a form of matter, is too self-evident for argument. But as Professor Shelley pointed out on the •blackboard last week, "Seeing is not necessarily believing"; which is capable of application to the other physical senses. Shakespeare wrote 300 years ago that "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" —a truism on which we don't yet seem to have made much advance. Thought impressions supply insufficient proofof actualities, i We speak of medicine as a practice, rather than a because its theories are so purely experimental, that to-day's orthodoxies, may be tomorrow's heterodoxies. And does not precisely the same thing hold good or biology? It is supposed to be the science of life, and yet its professors openly admit that life is undemonstrable; that it is something which they cannot, and nobody else can, explain, which is somewhat anomalous, to say -the least of it. We unfortunately muddle ourselves a good deal by spealdng of effects, as if . were causes. Wo say, for example: "I have a beastly toothache." And yet, as matter of fact, a tooth cannot ache. The ache is a physical sense impression of a cause wnich is elsewhere. Before a tooth can seemingly ache, there must be something to notify us of the fact, and that fact is life. If the tooth did really ache,, why not after death On this theory, it is death, not life, which is the. unreality The body as matter oannot die, because as matter,' it never lived.. And the true life as evolved by its Creator, cannot be extinguished any more ihan can God Himself. But all this is merely the fringe of the subject, .and I must not forget that, that I am a learner; not a professor, and only a kindergartener at that. As a consequence, my conclusions aro more amorphous than crystallised.—Yours, etc., _ J STUDENT. TO THE EDITOR OT "TIIE PRESS." Sir,—Your correspondent, Beatrice Harband, laughs at the apparent simplicity of the Indian-Scripture story of the Qreation. It does not do to laugh at Scripture stories, because, we generally find that they have a- big truth hidden behind them. besides, any observer can see that the Hindu and Hebrew stories of creation are practically the -same, told in different words. Hindu's Lord, Who, clothed in a great globe of radiance or ' egg, meditates upon the water, is our God Who "moved xtpon the face of the waters," the only real difference being that the Hindu description was written many thousands of years before the Hebrew one. If we don't look tor truth behind imagery, all Scripture stories sound childish. ■Picture a Hindu student reading our Bible account of the way in which evil came into the world. In the Genesis story which Beatrice Harband rightly terms "majestically simple," a certain'lady named Eve was induced, through curiosity, to eat\an apple at the request of a talking sriake. Her fatal, fondness for fruit brought sin and misery into the world. It has stayed there ever since, and to-day we must blame &ve for all our woes. I do not say that this is a fair interpretation but the Hindu student might be partial enough to his own Scriptures, to laugh immoderately at ours, and to' misunderstand them (is readily as we misunderstand his.-Yours, etc., gopHIA Christchurch, March 29th, 1921. , ALPINE PARTY'S EXPERIENCE. • TO THE EDITOR 0* "THE PRESS." Sir,—lt is to be regretted that you placed such a startling heading, Ten Days in the Snow," over the account of a party from toe Hermitage having been Shtrbound at the Welcome Flat hut in the Copland Valley, South Westlauu. This hut is the largest of Hie Government mountain huts, and » situated on the north bank of the-Copland nvei alongside a hot spring, ounounded by dense semi-tropical bush, and is a very loni* way below the snowlffie. I have been surprised chat more visitors to the Hermitage do not take advantage of the opportunity of visiting this hut, or of continuing on via Scott s and Wil.iams'a homesteads, to Grahams Hotel at the Franz Josef Glacier. Wea- • ther permitting, the hut can be reaoaed j in one day from the Hermitage, and the rest of the journey accomplished m a day and a half, either on horseback or on foot. I have been prompted to write, as your startling heading may be tftie means of preventing some tourists from undertaking this journey. The Copland Pass.is little more than 7000 feet above sea level, and on the date the party crossed, the snow would be well back, and they would soon descend to a well-defined and gradod track, leading down the valley past Douglas Rock bivouac, to where they would ford the Copland river to the hut. ' I I was in South Westland at the time, j and know that if tho party were at the : Welcome Flat or Douglas Rock they . were certainly not "ten days in tho snow."—Yours, etc., I CHAS, BUCHANAN. fihrUt.hnr.h. lfo& 28th. I

THE TUG'S WHISTLE. TO THE EDITOR OP "THE PRESS." c Sir, —May I trespass on your space to make a remark or two about the tug whistle nuisance at Lyttelton?. file position is that the tug whistle is blown at any old hour during the night or early "hours of the morning (especiallv Sunday), to call the tug's crew to suty. Alarm clocks have never been heard of by the Lyttelton Harbour Board staff. Why on earth the tug's crew cannot be told that they are to report for duty at a given hour is beyond me. The Harbour Board officials know approximately at what hour ships requiriric the tug will be off the Heads, so surely the old alarm clock should be given a chance. Leave the whistle for emergency only. —Yours, etc., SHELL SHOCK. TRAMWAY EXTENSION. TO THE EDITOR OF - "TUE PRESS." Sir,—The holidays have prevented me answering your correspondent "East Bryndwr" sooner. In criticising my remarks, he said the public had no opportunity to express an opinion on route before the poll was taken. The' proposal was advertised five or 6ix weeks before the poll, and'no objection was received until quite twelve months after the poll. Your correspondent says my idea is that a new line must pav at once. I have never said so, nor do I think so, because I know from experience that it will be four or ' five years before the Board can expect a new line like Bryndwr to pay. The Cranford street and the Coronation street extension showed deficiencies for the first three years, and it was inerased population created by the trams that made them payable propositions. Your correspondent says the Rossall street route will bo several thousand pounds cheaper in initial costs and maintenance than R'jgby street. That is not so, because you require something else beside a permanent-way and I overhead equipment to run a tramway | service. A service via Rossall street will need two extra cars to give an eighteen minutes' service to Br.yndwr, and the present-day costs of electric cars are about £4OOO each, and this makes tho Rugby street proposal the cheapest. A service via Rossall street and Holmwood road will not relieve the Papanui Toad's excessive traffic. At present the Board is running an afternoon and early evening six-minutes relieving service to Leinster road, and these cars can he merged into the new Bryndwr service and still assist in relieving the Papanui road traffic. This is an important item and Saving in cost of cars and wages. With respect to where the twopenny section will be, that has not yet been decided, but I guess about midway along Rugby street. I had. thought I made it clear to.the meeting that I supported Rugbv street because it was a chain road, and gave the shortest length of half-chain road to get into Bryndwr. If the Tramway Board had no objection to using half-chain roads it would nave selected Leinster road before all other routes into Bryndwr. It is a 50 per cent, better proposition than either of the other routes from a revenue point of view. But it is a halfchain road, and I am glad the Board puts safety before revenue, and I trust it will be obstinate enough to carry out the proposal as it was put to the rate-payers-Yours, etc, p