Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 293, 2 March 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

TAXATION Sir,— Mr. Downie Stewart and the rest of the optimists can afford to be optimistic. We are forever being told that we ought to congratulate ourselves because we are the least unemployed, least taxed and best governed people on the face of the earth. But that is cold comfort for the man who walks about with a tight belt looking for a job, in the knowledge that there are a wife and hungry children at home. It isn’t of much interest to me that I have not to pay income tax when I haven’t any income to pay it from; but I do know that far too great a proportion of the few shillings I can get hold of for the purchase of bare necessities of life is taken as tax, either through the customs or by those whom the customs enable to raise prices in the absence of real competition. Apart from land and income taxes, the New Zealanders are taxed in all manner of ways by rates and licence fees. And who told Mr. Downie Stewart that there are more unemployed, in proportion to population, in Australia than New Zealand? It is all very well to make these airy assertions. Let figures be produced. PLAIN JAMES. TOE HARBOUR BRIDGE Sir, — I notice that the shrewd financial heads of our marine boroughs are making a splendid exhibition of their acumen and ability to direct finance by enthusiastically “whooping up” the phantom bridge. According to their assertions, made on the authority of one of their volunteer “bridge engineers,” the phantom bridge can be realised for a paltry half million pounds, of which the engineer estimates 60 per cent, will be spent in labour—--1,000 men for the first year, 2,000 men for the second year. A simple calculation will show that 1,000 men for a year, at an average of £5 weekly, will need £260,000 for wages in the first year; and 2,000 men will require double that, £520,000 for wages in the second year. Total for wages, £780,000, which the engineer states is 60 per cent, of the cost. Therefore instead of the paltry half million the cost ought to be, on the engineer’s own figures, £1,300,000. It is wonderful that our mayors are so credulous. Before making further exhibitons of their inability to analyse propositions about the phantom bridge they should attend to the cutting of weeds and the mending of sewers. North Shore. I. c. FAX. UNLIGHTED MILK CARTS Sir,— I would like to call attention through the columns of your valued paper to the dangerous practice of milkmen in the suburbs leaving their unlighted milk carts in the middle of, or on, the wrong side, of the road in the early morning hours. Having had occasion to cycle into Auckland to work before 5 a.m., I have had several narrow escapes from colliding with dairy carts, generally on a bend of road where one least expects to find them. (I was going to write, ‘‘see” them, but in the absence of street lighting at that hour one does not “see” them until the bicycle lamp shows them up, and one is then only twelve feet or so away.) Only this morning a young fellow cycling to work crashed into an unlighted milk cart on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately he came in contact with the horse first. Had he struck the cart itself his injuries might

have proved serious. The driver in picking the cyclist up, exclaimed: “I thought you must be killed,” which shows the force of the impact. If the young fellow is able to go to work this week he will be lucky, as he must be more than bruised and sore, in addition to which his cycle is well smashed. He had a lamp showing a good light, so cyclists of the hours-before-dawn beware of these unlighted vehicles. Milkmen, do the fair thing and put a light on your carts, lest a fatal acciment happen for the want of such illumination. MT. ALBERT. WAS IT A LUCKY ESCAPE? Sir,— As one who failed through timorous bidding to secure a section at the Orakei Garden Suburb land sale recently, I should like an opportunity to express gratitude for such failure. It now seems to have been a iucky escape. The block overlooks and is close to what Dr. Chesson, the medical officer of health for Auckland, reveals politely as a “crude and an unpurified menace to health.” In other words the sewage du£np at the Orakei outfall is a noisome cesspool, a typhoid congeries, whence certain winds will blow blain and pustule over the model garden suburb to be. Sewage is good for gardens, but not as taken out of the air. Was the menace to health, the reason for the anti-Labour Government originally proposing to make Orakei a model suburb for workers? prpi. GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF WATER Sir, — The present dry spell which has caused such loss and inconveinence to the community must have compelled people to realise the need for better conservation and distribution of our water supply. The loss sustained, by fires alone, must be immense, and the drop in but-ter-fat returns should be a matter for great concern. It is radically wrong that such an essential as an adequate water supply should be lacking in a country that abounds in unlimited quantities of water in huge reservoirs, situated at high altitudes, and fed by the eternal snows. No really constructive thought has ever been given to this matter. Municipalities have tinkered with it, but' the question has never been treated with intelligence. Our own council has made shift with schemes that are merely palliative, and which, even when complete, will never give satisfactory supplies of water. My object in writing is, not to “grouse” about what has been done, but to put forward a suggestion that may offer a satisfactory solution of a most difficult problem. I hold that the provision of adequate water supplies should be a Government job. I would like to instance the fact that the Government has already recognised that it is its legitimate function to provide means whereby the whole of the Dominion may be supplied with power and light. Legislation has been passed to create necessary machinery in the shape of power boards, and funds have been arranged to finance the scheme. If the Government has seen fit in its wisdom to take upon itself the duties of supplying power and light, surely it should take into consideration the still more vital matter of water supplies. It is not right that, after a few weeks of sunshine, we should be faced with the possibility of loss of property, and, in some cases, even of loss of iife. INDUSTRIALIST.