Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 449, 3 September 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

TROUBLE IN TRAMS Sir. — May I request the hospitality of your columns to ash your readers two questions:— Is it not the duty of a tram conductor, first: to stop a man, who is anything but law-abiding, from smoking a big pipe in a non-smokers’ compartment? And, second, to refuse admittance to a drunken man or to put him down at the first stop, if he has entered unnoticed? Both questions are asked for the benefit of those ladies who neither smoke nor drink. JACKT. THE S.A. PARADE Sir, —- It seems to me the Salvation Army is only biting the hand that feeds it. If there is such a great deal of “sin” in Auckland, then why doesn’t the Army refuse to accept tained money from the sinners it so much despises? It is surely logical to suppose that the Army from now on will finance itself (as other religious bodies do) from among its own supporters? Itwill thus save itself from the contamination of Accepting sin. money. But will it do so? a. M. THOMSON. SABBATH OBSERVANCE Sir, . Your correspondent “A. E. C.” charges me with “a strange form of inconsistency” in that he says, I “pick this one command of Sabbath observance out of hundreds ascribed to the Lord, and ignore all the others,” and then asks: “Can he explain it?” My answer is that there is nothing to explain so far as inconsistency is concerned. In referring to “the day that God Himself has appointed” (and this is evidently what he objects to) I consistently addressed myself to the subject under review—the Bay of Rest. And inasmuch as that I referred also to the law of God (which A.E.C.” must

know includes more than that “one command”) and advocated a recognition of that law, on what ground does he charge me with ignoring “all the others”? I, in harmony with all the great Protestant denominations, count the ten precepts as binding to-day as ever they were, and as being the foundation of all good government (does “A.E.C.” do so?) and without which we should have a reign of anarchy and lawlessness. If “A.E.C.” takes the position that the Sabbath was for the Jews only, then will he be consistent and say that all the other nine precepts were also for them only? If not, why not? And will he say what commandments are referred to in 1 John, 5,3, and Rev. 14, 12? Then, as to Paul speaking “definitely against Sabbath observance,” will he give us chapter and verse for it? F. L. SHARP. THE PEACE PACT Sir, — While the big nations were patting each other on the back and renouncing war and its horrors, and religious services were being held, our own boys were “playing at being soldiers.” I refer to the camps at present being held. Surely it is time that this compulsory military system of ours was scrapped. It is entirely inconsistent with the Government’s professed attitude regarding the outlawry of war. In any case, when there is no war on the system is a gross abuse of the liberty of the subject. All those who went to the last scrap know that they were told to forget all they learned as Territorials, and months of preparation were insisted on before they were all allowed to leave New Zealand. RETURNED SOLDIER. MR. ARCHER AND THE TASMAN FLYERS Sir, — My recent strictures regarding those would-be Sunday monopolists, the Sabbatarians, have been abundantly justified by the conduct of the

Christchurch Ministers’ Association, aided and abetted by Mayor Archer, concerning KLingsford Smith’s*proposed arrival yesterday. The intended time of arrival was 10.30 a.m., and these clergymen, no doubt with visions of empty pews to preach to at 11 a,m., with a consequent decline in the collection, were in a fine state of frenzy and panic. As a result, they persuaded their mayor and brother-clergyman to send an inhospitable cable that was an insult to the gallan airmen. If Messrs. Smith and Ulm were not too big to ignore such petty narrowness, they would be well justified in cutting New Zealand out of their itinerary altogether. How our friends across the Tasman will laugh at our Puritanism. Kings* • ford Smith was welcomed at two cities there on Sundays. And what a reputation for the Dominion to get. tha.t wc* are discourteously rude to distinguished visitors if they propose to land here on a Sunday. Surely very few citizens endorse Mr. Archer’s questionable tactics. A.E.C. A SLIPPERY CORNER Sir,— A wagon, travelling cityward* skidded at the corner of Wellington ana Hobson Streets yesterday, and considerable damage was done to a stationary car alongside the kerb. A f* m minutes later a six-wheel did a similar skid, but the driver managed to hold his vehicle in check. Tln> corner is very dangerous. After a little rain it becomes greasy. Of f°® r verandahs that stood in the vicinity two are down and the other two have been down several times in the past two years. A SUBSCRIBER NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENT *‘A Satisfied Male.”—We cannot mit you to libel the women of Zealand in that way.—Ed. The Sun.