Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 529, 5 December 1928, Page 10

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

NATIONAL PARK

Sir. — A matter that is puzzling many concerns the Tongariro Hotel, which is to be built in the National Park. It is feared by many that this hotel is to have all the business advantages of its position anion's the scenic beauties of New Zealand's National Park, and that this business will be guarded by the State against competitors who may desire to erect accommodation houses in opposition. If this is the case the matter should be instantly righted. All citizens should be given equal right to build accommodation houses in these national grounds that are owned by the people. _ „ ISISTRU.

MR. BRITTEN’S POSITION

Sir, — Implicit in the assignment of any task is authority, such as the assignor may have, to take all necessary steps to its accomplishment. What steps are necessary, or expedient, for its accomplishment, the person or party entrusted with -a given task must determine. If performance of the task entails the exercise of powers normally exercised by the authority by whom, or under whom, the task is assigned, the assignee is perfectly justified in the exercise of such powers. Unless this be allowed, the person or party commissioned to a task would have no valid mandate for its performance, and all delegated work or government would become a mockery. Viewed in this light, I think it will be seen that Mr. F. A. Britten was well within his authority in communicating with Mr. Stanley Baldwin as he did. And those who have impeached his authority appear to have molested him in the conscientious discharge of his duty. That a conference, between American and British representatives, on the matters with which Mr. Britten’s committee has to deal, is necessary fov the successful prosecution of the committee’s task, can hardly be denied. AMEKICAN ROYAL ARCH.

FROM AMERICA

Sir.— I have been reading in Australian newspapers accounts .of criminal assaults against young girls. I thought this rather odd. and finally I came across an article, in an Australian paper by a woman who referred to these assaults as a growing evil or menace. This situation gives emphasis to what I recently wrote to a. gentleman in South Africa who wrote to me expressing his contempt for America. I said to him: “I do not think that America on the whole is worse than other nations. We have faults that other nations do not have, or do not have to the extent that we have them: but. on the other hand, other nations have faults that we do not have, or do not have to the extent that they have them.” This is true. America has faults enough. God knows! But although criminal assaults upon yourig girls are not unknown among us, as they are not unknown in all countries, 1 have never heard of an epidemic of this crimo in America. Out in the Western part of the United States where I live, a young woman may travel any-

where unescorted without fear of rudeness or insult. Certain foreign newspapers and individuals are much to blame for giving publication to examples of America’s crime and lawlessness, while they exclude news matter about the many good qualities of the mass of American citizens. This is as unfair as it would be for me to criticise the fine population of Australia because of a few* examples in Australia of criminal assaults. A citizen of any country should largely confine his criticisms to the citizens of his own country, and speak other nations fair; just as the father of a family freely corrects members of his own family, but is polite to his neighbours. CHARLES HOOPER. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, U.S.A.

URBAN DRIFT

Sir.— The advent of Dr. A. G. Fisher, Professor of Economics, of Otago University , seems to have infused new life into the old problem of town and country employment. Your comment that his remarks “stand up well to the sort of class-room examination which deals in theory (superimposed) upon theory is amply justified when facts of our import and export trade are taken into consideration. The professor’s misapplication of the law of supply and demand is the result of taking this or any other country as being self-contained. In New Zealand the urban drift is coincident with practically an unlimited market for our agricultural products. Had the professor treated the British Empire as an economic unit, his reasoning would have been nearer the mark- —for we find people who have accumulated wealth are seeking the conveniences of large old-world cities. Professor Fisher’s proposition that the real question was “What proportion of the people should be engaged in farming pursuits?” was supported by Professor Segar’s saying that “fewer people upon the land could now provide for the requirements of an expanding town life.” If, then, as reported, it is no more the duty of a farmer to promote employment than it is for a manufacturer to do so, and that the reason for the need of fewer people upon the land is the introduction of machinery-, it might possibly be advantageous to reverse the case and introduce more people to the land in order to cm pip v more machinery and the makers thereof. I wonder how the Mavor and the chairman of the Charitable Aid Board view the urban drift. In conclusion I venture to suggest that the old-time catch-as-catch -can, go-as-you-please style of industrial effort is getting out of date: that private enterprise must be increasingly guided by national considerations to a more eqtfal, if not more equitable, distribution of social productive effort and processes. E.N.D.

WORLD’S FISH SUPPLY

Sir. — 1 read with great interest the remurks of Professor Johannes Schmidt, who is visiting New- Zealand: (1) There is a danger of a shortage in the world's fish supply: (2) the depletion of the world's supply of edible tish (Continued in Next Column;

must be stopped. Since 1914 I have been struggling and fighting to preserve our New Zealand fisheries. When I first started to help the Thames fishermen we first of all got the trawlers tinned out of the Firth of Thames. Then .1 proposed that the railways should put on insulated trucks on the non-stop principle to get fresh fish to inland towns; suggested an up-to-date plant to can eels and trevalli: that sharks be caught for manure and oil; the building of a plant on piles alongside the railway; and many other ideas which were too ambitious for the Thames men. Since then 1 have consistently worked for the preservation of fisheries by closing our Gulf to power driven nets. Now we have an eminent man with us—telling us that fishing implements are becoming more perfect and so wo are catching fish in greater numbers. For ten long years I have persistently worked against these modern and up-to-date methods of trawling and seining, and against power-drawn nets being allowed to operate in our gultaWhy? Because it been proved without doubt that they are in a great, measure responsible for our vepy serious depletion of fish in our Guif. You can ask any old settler, an> sportsman or fisherman if this is ny. a fact.* Fish is becoming rapidb scarcer. Perhaps those in authorit will now begin to wake up and see tn© wisdom of the agitation and work tnac has been done for so many years » try and preserve our fisheries. 1 resolutions that have been sent i Parliament . containing thousands©* signatures all ask the same Preserve our fisheries; they are being seriously depleted. . _ Denmark is the country abov-.au others that has most scientific » ledge and practical ~k “ °Yl c2 ®La ra fisheries. We shall all look f with the keenest interest to h ®*L*"£j s Professor Schmidt and his compa have to say on the subject and w cordially welcome them to New ot lfJnd ' RUBY G. WATSON.