Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 706, 4 July 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

WEARY PASSENGERS

Sir. — In the interests of the travelling public, it would be a good idea if the Railway Department introduced footrests in the railway carriages. At the present time, if a passenger becomes drowsy on a long distance journey, he has a fair chance of slipping off his seat on to the floor. It would not cost much to place foot-rests in the carriages, and it would be greatly appreciated if narrow slats of wood were nailed to the floor behind every seat to give the passenger something to put his heels against. Little innovations like this popularise the railways. As one who has suffered, I know. MORPHEUS.

PERiODiCLTY IN DETONATIONS

Sir, I recently pointed out that the weather would remain unsettled during the period that would prove so conducive to earthquakes and which would end about June 27. It did so. Again, I maintained that shocks would continue to occur at intervals of about minutes or multiples of 5£ minutes, that being the length I computed for sub-crust pressure waves. And now (as stated by the Press Association) Mr. W. McLean, county chairman at Karamea, writing on June 19, says: “It is now 24 hours since the first shake and we are getting tremors quite reguarly every five or ten minutes.” From Murchison, too, came reference to similar periodicity in detonations. F. R. FIELD.

STATE LOTTERIES. WHY NOT?

country are morally superior, in a gambling sense, to our sisters and brothers across the Tasman, and further they are receiving big advantages from us owing to our lack of Initiative, or, might I say, our one-eyed views regarding gambling. Briefly, why not arrange a monthly consultation; relief moneys to be paid from the profits; a balance to be effected annually and any surplus to be paid into the Consolidated Fund? A. F. MONCUR. Whakatane.

Sir, — The excellent response financially by the public to the various earthquake relief funds throughout the Dominion seems to me to suggest that a large percentage of the population would be sympathetic toward the establishment of a fund which could be drawn upon whenever necessary to relieve necessitous cases of a national character, and I am of the opinion that a State lottery run on the same principle as “Tattersall’s” in Tasmania would form the basis for such a fund. It is certainly a fact that many thousands of pounds yearly leave New Zealand for investment in lotteries abroad. It Is merely hypocritical to argue that we in this

MORE GAMBLING

Sir,— I am bitterly disappointed in the new Government. To have opened the flood-gates of gambling as they have done by repermitting the holding of art unions appears to me to be a breach of the trust imposed upon them by the people in November. It is well enough for people to suggest that the money invested in the art union will be -well spent. And, thev say, the winner might be a poor bread-winner. That is not enough for me. X know the evils of these raffles and art unions, and I think that to grant perfor them again is merely to start New Zealand on the downward path whence it was just returning when the United Party came into power. Is this to foreshadow the United Party’s attitude upon the gaming laws—an increase in gambling? AFRAID.

BISHOP CHERRINGTON’S ADDRESS

Sir,— Your correspondent, Mr. Dowle. in attacking Bishop Cherrington’s views on Evolution, exposes his entire ignorance of science (not pseudo-science). All sciences dealing with the physical evolution of man contradict the account of special creation as given in the Bible. Geology proves the existence of man on earth for an immense period antecedent to that of the Biblical narrative Chronology proves by Egyptian and Assyrian records, dating back previous to the alleged flood, that nations were in existence whose civilisation was such that thousands of years of progress must have intervened between man’s first appearance on this world and the point of development he had arrived at, even at this remote period. (Continued in next column.)

With regard to the connection of the infinite variety of plant and animal forma which Mr. Dowle thinks were created in sequence a few centuries ago. Palaeontology has supplied intermediate forms and linked disparate species, and has connected the species living in a given region with their fossil predecessors. Embryology has shown that each ovism recapitulates in its development the history of the species to which the parent belongs. Anatomy has discovered rudimentary organs, like the teeth of the whale and bird, that refer to former species . The continuity of evolution is completely proven until we come to mac, and Science affords no basis for the theory of an extra-mundane and nonmechanical intervention. A.J.W.

ANTI-EVOLUTIONARY “AUTHORITIES”

Sir, — There seems to be a lack of sincerity in quoting against Evolution —(a) Professor Bateson, without stating that he is a convinced evolutionist, and that his quoted remark is not upon the fact of Evolution, but on its method of operation—an unpardonable confusion; (b) Professor Virchow (stated to be an “advanced scientist”), without making known that he died 27 years ago, that he was a lifting agnostic, that not one of his colleagues agreed with his views on Evolution, and that his son-in-law, Professor Rabl, declared that he privately believed in Evolution, but publicly opposed it as tending to lead to Socialism”; and (c) a “noted” divine (unnamed), without stating that the latter’s designation for Evolution, “The Gorilla Gospel,” is a gross misrepresentation even of that limited aspect of Evolution which deals with the immediate ancestry of man. This with reference to the tirade against the Bishop of Waikato by Mr. Reuben Dowle, A.V.1., Ph.S I do not suppose his Lordship, who has earned the respect of all those who value honest expression of opinions (“even from the pulpit,” to adapt the Rev. Mr. Hunt s utterance), will reply to a letter so patently smacking of the obsolete arguments, the" venerable deceased “authorities,” and the disingenuous reasoning of that specious brand of literature, the fundamentalist antievolutionary' pamphlet. A.E.C-

EARLY AND LATE MEALS

Sir, — If an Auckland magistrate finds difficulty in securing meals at an early as well as at a late hour, it is probably because he knows less of the early morning and late night life of Auckland than one in his position would be expected to know. I agree with “Toheroa.” your correspondent, that some evidence of th© other side should be placed before him. To show my goodwill In this suggestion, sir, I will make one of a party of six, to include the magistrate, and accompany him to seme of the caravanserais* where the fry-pau never rests, and where fish sizzles merrily until well Into the small hours. But, then, as the magistrate would point out, there are meals and meals. NIGHT OWL