Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 31, 29 April 1927, Page 8

Citizens Say —

THE TAKAPUNA ELECTIONS Sir, — On a perusal of the results of the polling in Takapuna, one fact stands out in high relief, and that is the truth of that oft-quoted dogma of the great Abraham Lincoln —“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but. you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” NEMESIS. “INDECENT HASTE” Sir,— One would like to know who was responsible for the indecent haste with which the floral emblems were removed from the Cenotaph on Anzac Bay. Within a few minutes of their being placed in position by the Mayor and others, men came with waggons and started to remove them. They were very beautiful, and it is a pity that so few people should have had a chance to see them. We were expecting that the police or someone would have formed the spectators into a queue to proceed round the Cenotaph, and so give all a chance of seeing the emblems and paying respect to what they represented. It was quite clear that someone had blundered. H.R.H. AUCKLAND’S DRABNESS Sir, “Truthteller” is not. The drabness he ascribes to Auckland must be in his own mind. If he needs the hectic all-night revelry of New York, the open sin of Paris, the dissipations of cities that cater for minds which cannot find satisfaction in sane and orderly living, let him return to the foreign fields upon whose doubtful pastures he has been browsing. We do not want his kind here, to turn our city into a modern Babylon. We have all the amusement any sane community desires, and do not need the “pep” he would provide. If we do go to bed before the milk arrives it is to be decent and ready for the next day’s work. If “Truthteller” wants high life of the kind he hints at let him seek elsewhere for debauchery and not return here to try and make muddy the clear waters of the social life of a city which should be ashamed to have reared him. SIMON SLOWER. NIGHT LIFE Sir, I did not like the tone of “Truth - teller’s” letter, and as a good Aucklander I rather resented his imputation that ours is a dull city. Of course, I am not so foolish as to imagine that the night-life of any city in New Zealand or Australia for that matter (Sydney excepted), could compare with that of London or Paris. I am not unfamiliar with the best forms (and the worst) of night life. I have wintered in Cairo and been in Deauville in the season. And there are haunts in Central American cities where I have helped to make the night hideous. But looking back on it all I rather think I prefer the sane, clean outlook of New Zealanders and the moderation that characterises our night life. I am not the kind to get hot under the collar at reasonable criticism and “Truthteller” is entitled to his point of view. In view of his contention that this is a “hick” town for life o’ nights however I expect he will shortly be booking his passage for one of those enlightened countries where a man can have dinner at breakfast-time if he so desires and may find vice flourishing on a sound commercial basis. POPPA. FOREIGN TRADE Sir,— In reply to “C.H.N.’s” letter published in your edition of the 13th inst., your correspondent alleges, “I circle round the essential points dealing with foreign trade.” There is a happy medium in all things, including even Empire trade and protection of local industries, but it seems to me that “C.H.N.” unfortunately has a tendency to revert to

To the Editor,

extremes, which is quite a common characteristic of those who fortunately form a very minor section of the community and whose so-called arguments —if one may term them such—are treated merely as propaganda not altogether in the interests of the Empire as a whole. Before the war Great Britain supplied approximately 60 per cent, of our total imports, but in recent years this proportion fell to 48.7 per cent., due entirely to imports from outside the Empire, among which is a steadily increasing flow from the United States. In 1925 U.S.A. supplied us with no less than 17 per cent, of our total imports. I quite agree with “C.H.N.” that trade is barter, but, with all due respect for his theories, I must ask your correspondent where our primary producer stands regarding a market in U.S.A. for his produce? Surely every justification exists to re-establish a more self-contained Empire by stimulating trade within the Empire and also cultivating reciprocal trade? My reference to the dumping of foreign goods applied to New Zealand. “C.H.N.” states he gives preference to such goods. Surely something of a contrast to the Government and local bodies which are setting such a splendid example by giving preference to British goods and thus materially assisting Britain again to become the workshop of the world. In conclusion, I once again impress upon “C.H.N.” that I am in favour of utilising every possible lever to build up and consolidate Empire trade, and I am sure if your correspondent will read the latest bulletin of the Bepartment of Overseas Trade of Britain he will be much enlightened. Non sibi sed patriae. THOMAS A. FRASER. Wellington, 19th April. CHILD-LABOUR IN CHINA Sir, — “The worst we have been told of factory conditions in China,” declares “Reciprocity is Right,” “is that children of five years are employed for 12 hours a day for seven days a week.” He then seeks to dismiss the matter by blaming parents and guardians. But long hours, inhuman as they appear to many, are not the “worst we have been told”; far from it. Mr. Sherwood Eddy, international secretary of the Y.M.C.A., has made investigations of factory conditions on the spot. He says: “In a Chinese rug factory men and boys work on an average 16 hours a day, from 5.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. After 5 years of this work they are broken in health and useless.” Of northern silk mills: “Here I found little girls seven years of age earning 20 cents a day; and mothers working with babies lying on the floor beside them or strapped to their backs.” Of match factories he says: “We found employees, mostly boys from nine to 15 years, working from 4 a.m, to 8.30 p.m. The poisonous fumes of phosphorus burned our lungs the short half-hour we were in the factory.” The following extracts are from the “International Labour Review,” an organ of the League of Nations. “Wages . . . are too low for an unskilled worker to support his family unless liis wife and children work too.” • To “Reciprocity is Right,” however, these things are “superficial matters,” on which one must not dwell; they will right themselves, he says, as “spiritual rapproachment” advances. In the meantime, however, small children must continue to be maimed and mangled by high-speed machinery. Bolshevism, of course, is “creating industrial trouble in China.” However, let him take hope and read what the “Economist,” the hard-headed financiers’ journal, thinks of his Bolshevik bogy: “Thus we should be flattering Soviet Russia if we attributed our present unpopularity in China entirely to her machinations, and, what is more dangerous, we should be flattering ourselves. We must face the fact that the principal cause of our unpopularity in China is our own traditional position, and that if Russian influence were to be eliminated from China to-morrow we could not recover popularity or our trade without revising our own viewpoint.” “RIGHT ANB RECIPROCITY.”