Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 151, 16 September 1927, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

ANOTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION Sir,— It is stated in THE SUN that at a meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association a member remarked that “at least 10 people had been killed outright” by centre poles. Now, can somebody tell us how many lives have been saved by these same centre poles? QUERY. GRATITUDE Sir,— My wife implores me to thank the Government, through you, for the blessings vouschafed her by the new tariff. True, bread will be dearer, and butter is soaring in price, so that there will be less bread-and-butter for the babes, but, if they have to go short of food, they will enjoy what they do get very much better, because in a few months’ time they will be able to have a nice, clean, new tablecloth, as unsewn linen is to be admitted duty-free. Also, cups will be a penny or so cheaper, although at 7d a quart the wife is afrail she won’t be able to put much milk in them. Still, on the whole, we think the Government is wonderfully considerate—don’t you? —GRATITUDE. ABOUT FARMERS Sir, I note there has been a terrible to-do in Parliament regarding the alleged reference of Mr. Jordan to “the everlasting whining of the far.mers.” What if Mr. Jordan did say it. If he did, he only repeated what almost everybody has been saying, and I only hope he sticks to it; for a more discontented, disgruntled lot than the farmers of New Zealand I never did encounter. Nor a more ungrateful. They want everything they use duty-free and at wholesale cost, if they can’t get it for nothing, while they shriek for high duties on wheat so that they can fill their pockets while the rest of the community pays dearly for its bread. Legislation has done more for the farmers of New Zealand than it has in any other country—they are spoon-fed—-but they spend half their time cursing the legislators. The dog that bites the hand that feeds it has nothing on the farmer. —ANTI-WHINE. A LA RUSSE Sir,— Knowing that your paper is always out for the cause of justice, I am writing this letter, as a resident of Mount Albert Borough, to protest against the unjust act of dismissing the borough engineer in circumstances, judged from Press reports, which t must say I have never seen equal „d in my life’s history. It is an unBritish and undemocratic thing. A person in a law court charged ith an offence is not deemed guilty until the fullest inquiry in open court has been made in his presence. To dismiss a man without giving him a chance to defend himself is not British* it savours of the Russian method of administration. I sincerelv hope other residents of the borough will take die question up. J. GRACIE. TEA—AND THE GIRL Sir.— I would ask your sympathetic ear in my plaint, and do beg a lowly corner of your columns that all may know and heed the growing menace to the mnnocent beauty that inhabits the business houses of this unbusinesslike Auckland. I refer, of course, to Miss Queen Street’s inordinate drinking of

morning and afternoon tea. lam not an observant man, yet on every hand I am conscious that the ping of her typewriter bell is rapidly yielding place to the tinkle of spoon in teacup. Indeed, where once she hummed away her contented tealess hours, she is now voiceless unless the kettle on the radiator is bubbling forth its encouragement. So surely is she falling a victim to this habit that from her arrival at 9.5 a.m. until she smudges her face with the last cosmetic dab at 4.50 p.m. /her thoughts are uncontrollably tea-ward. My motive in taking the trouble to sound this warning? —purely altruistic. I might well have hesitated, muttering, Pharisee-like. “What is that to me? —see thou to that.” But no, sir. it is to save her from herself that I write. Do I exaggerate? I think not, but if it were so the end justifies the means. Auckland’s fair youth, once renowned for its beauty, was praised of Athens nd envied of Sydney. What did Kipling say? Yes, sir, what?. Truly Miss Queen Street is in peril of losing her blooming charm, simply because of her over-indulgence in a. narcotic thu.t had its origin in China. Has she anything to say in answer to the observations of a perturbed JUNIOR PARTNER.