Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 391, 27 June 1928, Page 10

Citizens Say —

A DRIVE FOR FUNDS Sir,— I see from your columns that the Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen’s Association proposes to make another drive this winter for funds and materials to assist in relieving distress among the poor people in our city. I sincerely trust that they will meet with success according to the merits of the appeal. Being in close touch for years with the good work done by this association, I can speak with knowledge and certainty, and could not praise it too highly. The enthusiasm and painstaking effort it has devoted to its campaigns is well known. What is perhaps not so well known is the sympathetic and kindly way in which the proceeds have been distributed. This, of course, cannot come before the public gaze, but I have known of hundreds of deserving cases which have been unobtrusively helped by this association. Its widespread organisation gives it a unique opportunity for getting in touch with the needs of the people, and this opportunity is used splendidly. I wish them every success in their appeal. A. R. BLACKSON. THE JERVIS BAY Sir,— I really must reply to “Buntline's” remark re H.M.S. Enterprise being unable to help the s.s. Jervis Bay. Knowing something of the routine and conditions of the East India Station, of which I presume the Enterprise is a unit, your correspondent would find (were it possible to inquire) that the vessel is probably undergoing a periodical refit in dry dock at Colombo, and when this takes place the crews of H.M. ships are sent to camp away up in the hills, some considerable distance from Colombo, for recuperation, which is very necessary from a health point of view, after doing a few rounds of Persian Gulf patrol, to say nothing of Aden, Berbera, etc. The trying conditions and heat of these places speak for themselves. I would remind “Buntline” that it is not winter in Colombo, and that his remark as to the Enterprise being “asleep on the beat” is most uncalled for, and also a clear case of “writing about what he knoweth not.” That is the opinion of BUNTING. WHO OWNS THE LAURELS? Sir, — I noticed in your report of the address given by Mr. Holland, at the Town Hall last week, he was credited with saying that the blind people of New Zealand had Mr. Parry to thank for the pensions to the blind. Evidently Mr. Holland is either blind or deaf, as the member for Manukau has made this matter one of his main

(To the Editor.)

points, both before he was elected and since being returned, as the constituents of Manukau can vouch. Another thing that Mr. Holland did not credit our worthy member with was the removal of little children’s names from the crimes register, which we all know Mr. Jordan was instrumental in bringing about. Now, it appeared to me that Mr. Holland was slighting the member for Manukau. Why? Is it because he has the courage to express his opinions? If so, I say Bravo, Jordan! Carry on; you have the people behind you, and it is the people who count. I would also say to the people of Manukau: “Are you going to let your member be treated in this way?” We all know Mr. Jordan is doing his job. Manukau should \vake up and show the respect in which its member is held throughout the electorate. FAIRPLAY MANUKAU. CLAIMANT FOR £SOO Sir, — “Adelphos” seems to forget that Apocrypha Bibles are sold by the thousand. The question as to their being Scripture is purely “opinion” and nothing more. However, that is not the point at issue. The 1.8.5. made an offer of £ 500 to anyone who could furnish them with a verse quoting that man has an immortal soul, or was given an immortal soul, or that Maintains any such theory. I have quoted the 23rd verse in the second chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon”: “For God created man to be immortal and made him to be an image of His own eternity.” They cannot deny that this verse exists, any more than they can deny that they did not emphasise the particular Bible it was to be found in. I think that they have overlooked the wide area legally possible in the wording of their offer, and from this point I maXe my claim. The declaration that death is a portion of the human race, and that God only has immortality, was not mentioned in the offer at all. ROSEUIA CLARK. THE NEGATIONS OF SCIENCE Sir, — I would rather trust the intuitions of faith than the negations of a science which explores the world of the spirit only to report that it finds no reality there. The highest insight of the soul is something more than “integrated strings of experience interplaying upon an organism.” “Profanum Vulgus” considers the existence of a spiritual being as a “cobweb accumulation on the soul idea,” and treats it as irrelevant. I think he is wrong. The idea of God is older than the idea of immortality. The modern theist’s conception of the soul grows out of his belief in God. Ho thinks of God in terms of bis own highest experiences, and cannot believe that God is less than this because primitive man felt