Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 306, 17 March 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

SUBURBAN TRAIN SERVICE

Sir, Otahuhu, with its ever-increasing population, lias a very wonderful evening train service after the 8.19 p.m. pulls out. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 9.18 and 10.30; Wednesday, 9.18 and 11.15; Friday, 9.47 and 10.30; Saturday, 9.47 and 11.15. So it can be seen that should one be unfortunate enough to miss the 9.18 on a Wednesday night a wasteful wait of nearly two hours is necessary.*ln the meantime people will go for a bus rather than wait till midnight before getting home. I think the 10.30 could be run on Wednesdays and Saturdays also and be well patronised. SEASON TICKET.

THE GAMING ACT Sir,— I read with surprise the letter published in your columns of recent date on the Gaming Act where the onus of proving his innocence is apparently on the accused. This is so abhorrent to all ideas of British justice and fairplay, thas I have taken the trouble to scrutinise a copy of the Act. I was astounded at its unfair provisions. How it was ever passed by a Parliament of the British Empire is beyond my comprehension. I note that anyone caught gambling away from the legalised totalizator is not only fined, but is also excluded from all racecourses. In other words the offender is not only made a criminal, but he is punished twice for the one offence which is right against English legal practice. The idea of excluding a man from a racecourse because he gambles, would be an exquisite joke if it was not also a tragedy. The whose Act appears to be badly and loosely drafted, thus giviwg a magistrate a chance to stretch or twist its provisions. Already our prison population is alarming, but if the Gaming Act were strictly enforced there would not be enough gaols in New Zealand to hold these Parliamentmade criminals? I hope that some action will be taken promptly to restore that British freedom for which our fathers fought. ENGLISH JUDGE.

INDIGNATION FROM INVERCARGILL Sir. There has appeared in the “Southland Times” of March 14 a selection of letters written to Auckland papers concerning the case of a man who skinned a rabbit alive. To hear these people one would think that Auckland was the only c-n----lightened place in New Zealand and that the rest of the country, in particular Southland, was a place containing nothing but barbarians of' the lowest typo. Listen. One man signing himself “A Skin for a Skin.” actually suggests skinning the man alive in part. That may have been all right before the Christian Era in the

days of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I submit that- a man’s skin for that of a rabbit was never claimed or suggested. Then there is a man who suggests that the offender be handed over to a few animal lovers. Well, what would they do to him? Skin him alive? Mutilate him? It seems strange that anyone could have less regard for a human being than an animal. Then there'is a letter from one who signs herself “A Woman.” I don’t know what kind of a woman she is, but she must come from China, where it was the custom and still is. I believe, to torture offenders by causing them to wear a heavy wooden collar for a few weeks. Well, as New Zealand is ahead of Finland or China, so Invercargill is ahead of Auckland. None of the writers of the letters which were reprinted in the “Southland Times” seems to realise that it is not his business to criticise the justices in what they do, and further that none realise that the law is not, thank goodness, what it was a 100 years ago, and that the persons who write in the manner they do are worse than the offender himself. LEX. Invercargill.

THOSE BATHS! Sir, — I notice the deputy-mayor of the city, Mr. A. J. Entrican, now claims, as a point of pride, that it was not the Auckland Health Officer who first discovered that the Parnell Baths were foul and dangerous. The City Council’s own health officer is cited as the official discoverer. If there be any honour in the discovery, I, for one, am quite willing to let the City Council have it. But if the municipal authorities knew that the baths were menacingly dirty, why did they wait until Dr. Chesson forced a closure? As a parent of a pupil at a girls’ college, I know that the authorities were informed early in February that the college principals could not again agree to allow the girls to visit the baths at Point Resolution. No action waz taken for a month. Then, when the real condition of the baths became public knowledge the chairman of the Parks Committee and Mr. Entrican assumed the roles of Mr. Dilly and Mr. Dally, about it and played the old council game of shilly-shally. Indeed, it was reported that Mr. Paterson actually asserted to an interviewer that “there was nothing wrong with the baths”! By the time the Parnell baths and others have been purified, their purity doubtless will be cited by councillors, as a splendid reason for re-election to an effete local government. DISGUSTED.

DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE Sir,— There is not a civil engineer of repute or expert on sanitation who does not condemn as obsolete the discharge

of sewage into waterways, be they fresh or salt. Millions on millions have been spent by cities on the Continent, America *&■ at Home on replacing old methods ? new, and our greatest engineers written very fullv on the subject. For Auckland there is but one pofsible scheme, and that is a sewag*j farm, and probably the simplest j best method will be to buy MotoW" ] Island and extend our pipes * i miles. If our council or drainage bo*r; • manage half as well as some of Home towns they will make it a P 4 -' ing concern. It is quite impossible in less than long article to go into this nwWjP most people are aware that drains have ruined one of the oyster beds in the world, and sciencwhave held the view for generations fish were carriers of disease, ana particular of cancer. - I therefore call the attention of drai*-* age boards and the public gen«r»|_ carefully to review the scherae making a sewage farm of one ot large islands in the Gulf. W. A WATSON. St. Heliers Bay.

WAKE UP, AUCKLAND! Would it not be possible through medium of your live newspape , Sun, to start a continuous h j n r • paign, offsetting the ; apathy, pessimism, and gloom a-y in ent prevailing in business C J hlis iied this city, and setting forth d facts to prove how Ulineces fhk 0n is? false this almost chronic future This is not the time, nor F_ necU >- either, for extravagance, wild bat tion and impracticable cov providing economy, to be** sidered judgment are brougn g on sound investments, there -jt*to prevent a gradual incre ff®_ 0 i e peri perity and progress. The to be shown how this can oe The winter is coming, and call to action may help unnecessary state of ** eoW^cTTVrrT*

NOTICES TO CORRESPOND^ “Killer” (Paeroal.—Thanks formation, which will to the correspondent wn about the destruction ol au Mm