Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 451, 5 September 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

BETTER, A PRAYER

Sir,— I have read with interest of the proposed flight across the Tasman of Kingsford Smith and his companions and what lucky people tljose of Christchurch are to have the honour of receiving the first Tasman flyers. What a pity the flyers cannot come here. I think Mr. Archer, as a minister, should have asked all the churches to offer up a prayer to God on that Sunday for the safety of these brave men, rather than object to receive them. Seeing that boats run on Sunday and trams rattle along, I don’t think a flight would do any harm. But still we will have always a few objectors with us. Mr. Archer forgets the plight of the other brave flyers who lost their lives on the Tasman flight; let us hope Kingsford Smith, and his party arrive safely. What a red-letter day for Sockburn. GOOD SPORT.

MR. ARCHER’S MESSAGE

Sir, — There is always something refreshing about the leading articles in The Sun, clear, concise and to the point, and from one on Monday night “Insult to Courage” in connection with the Rev. J. K. Archer’s slap in tlje face to Kingsford Smith and Co., should cause many to pause and think what a wonderful country this would be to live in if Mr. Archer’s section of the community got too much power. They have only one outlook on life—“their own,” and when Mr. Archer as a member of the Ministers’ Association will use his position as Mayor to send such a message implicating the whole of Christchurch, then I say “Beware.” Australia, however, will have a good laugh at us and in years to come the message will be as famous as is Lord Nelson’s at the Battle of Trafalgar.

ROSKILL ELECTORATE

Sir, — I am not a supporter of Miss Melville and I hope that all supporters of the private bus in the Roskill district will call to mind her scathing remarks. Parliament, to my way of thinking, is the place for men. A woman’s place is in her home. ANOTHER ELECTOR.

SLANG AND EDUCATION

Some observations by an English exchange school teacher, which have found their way into the papers, are remarkable for nothing so much as to show what peculiar ideas the Press does, at times, consider worth repro-. ducing. Not long ago Dr. North was congratulating Archbishop Averill for metaphorically shaking (by the neck) some of the conceit out of us New Zealanders. One resentful writer made the contention, although the Archbishop has been he many years, that, he was not qua i to judge or censure us. This gen... man, who has been here a few weeks, tells us that we are altogether too modest now, so it may be assumed that the Archbishop’s terrier tactics have had an immediate and salutary effect. It is difficult to see how a stranger to us, as Mr. Cross is, can seriously put on record an opinion, when the data upon which to form it has not been available to him. He next says he was astonished to see children riding to school on horseback and cycles. One wonders how he expects them to arrive. But his piece de resistance lies in the gem of sapience expressing the opinion that the threatened lapse into slang may be attributed to the absence of Bible

reading in schools. What an exquisite example of unintelligible stultiloquence this constitutes, to be sure. It is about as apt as laying the blarpe for the outbreak of a fever epidemic to the charge of a doctor, instead of those responsible for the provision of proper sanitary and other prophylactic measures. The cinema, the agency guilty of creating the slang tendency, in a positive sense, and the impotence of our education methods to counteract the tendency makes of the service a particeps criminis, whose inability successfully to cope with the situation it is impossible to regard with any degree of tolerance or composure. The crying need of our schools is a higher efficiency in our teachers. The dullards and dotards must be gently removed, then the slang cataclysm may thus be averted. PAPYRUS. Hastings, September 2, 1928.

NO LANDING GROUND

Sir, — It must have been a source of wonderment to citizens* to learn that a search over a radius of 25 miles round Auckland City had located no suitable landing-ground for the airplane Southern Cross. An area of 1.000 yards by 1,000 yards, approximately 200 acres, clear of obstruction and flat, is a big tract, and it seems we will really have to forgo the pleasure of seeing Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith. If a trans-Tasman air service is to be inaugurated between Auckland and Sydney, a landing-ground will have to be found in the city. Now, sir, what about reclaiming Shoal Bay, the great indentation between Northcote Point and Bayswater? At low water the area is practically a landing-ground, as it is. Surely it would not be an expensive work to fill in the bay, nor a difficult engineering problem. I am afraid the work could not be done in time for Captain Smith's arrival, although if the weather over the Tasman continues unfavourable . Anyone with half an eye can see that before long civil aviation in this country will be bustled along in the flying surge which is sweeping over England, America and Australia. At Shoal Bay, then, is the basis of a first-rate land-ing-ground, right in the heart of Auckland. This is a project. I venture to say, that the Auckland Aero Club might -well take up. The club’s ground at Mangere is not ideal and, in my opinion, lies too far from the city WATIHARA.

PARTICULARS WANTED

Sir, — Surely something can be done to remedy the methods used to trap motorists. I have heard much dissatisfaction expressed as to the time which elapses between the actual date of an alleged offence and the serving of the “summons to appear,” no notification or particulars as to time or place being given. In my own case, I was in blissful ignorance of having offended antil served with a summons, the offence being dated over three weeks previously. I attended the court to find out the actual time and nature of the charge and discovered that- it was practically impossible for me to have been on the road at the time specified The “dangerous driving” charge was a speed of 36 miles an hour, on a perfectly straight piece of road, without any crossroads, and which was admitted by the officer to be “safe.” The fine was £3, with 10s costs and 7s for lawyer's fees; what lawyer I do not know nor could I find out, but presumably one employed by the Waitemata County Council.

I thmk the A.A.A. should take this matter in hand immediately. Careful motorists welcome all precautions, but we have a right to fairness and con(Continued in next column)

sideration. We seem to be at tbe mercy of various revenue-seeking borough boards and councils, whose traffic officers have, to put it mildly, made decided mistakes. L. BOND.

SABBATH OBSERVANCE

Sir. — The Rev. F. L. Sharp questions my reference to the attitude of Paul upon the above. He does not go so far a? to suggest that Paul anywhere upheld it, nor is there any text upholding it in the New Testament. That Paul opposed it is seen from Gal. iv„ 5-11. Colos. ii., 16 et seq., Rom. viL 4-5. Further, Paul gives his list of necessary observances in Rom. xiii. 9, but no word about Sabbath observance, and in this he was followed Tor several centuries by the early fathers. It will be noted that Mr. JSharp maintains a significant silence on the central fact that Christ nowhere enjoins Sabbath observance, but on thf contrary, was reported as having broken that law (vide John v. 1-20). The point I endeavoured to make ir. my last letter was that Mr. Sharp others say that we should observe the Sabbath (whether Saturday or Sunday) because it is the law of God. But God is credited with many laws (see e.g. Gen. xvii. 9-14 and Ex. chaps, xxv.-xxx), many of which neither Mr. Sharp nor any other civilised person would uphold. It is then inconsis*enT to advance the above plea for Sunday observance while exercising a selective right among the laws. I certainly accept some of the ten commandments (so-called), not because they happen to be found in the Bible, nor because some of them appear in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, in tht pagan authors of antiquity, and in tht works of Confucius, but because they appeal to my reason. I have amply shown that arguing even on the Christian’s own ground* there is no authority for Sabbath observance, except among the Jewish, laws which the early Christian Churtr deliberately flouted as having been overuled by the new dispensation. A.E.C.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENT

“I.F.G.”—If fresh evidence is forthcoming, the man can be arrested again and charged with murder. Tht fact that a man has been discharged does not exonerate him for all fini* if new and important evidence i* brought to light.—Ed., The Sun.