Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 896, 13 February 1930, Page 10

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

AFRICAN METHODS "Sir,— Many of your readers will be interested to know that in Natal and other parts of Africa the natives recently held huge meetings to protest against paying: the head-tax and against having to comply with certain rules laid down by the authorities. But in Africa the police are forbidden to use any weapons but batons, even in the riots which sometimes occur. The natives are denied the possession of firearms. Their vast numbers, alone, would be a. menace under violent conditions. That no one is seriously hurt in any disturbance prevents serious results from the enforcement of the law. B. KING. VIVISECTION Sir.— Now that the sob-stuff part of the cancer campaign is over, may I i*emind your readers that this research involves vivisection of animals as in the case of the unfortunate monkeys in Dunedin, which are quite “pets of the place” when not being put into an agony? The churches are being appealed to, inferentially to countenance this revolting cruelty. Cancer is caused nine times out of ten by faulty elimination and the consumption of too much meat. So long as New Zealanders eat every three hours, cancer will increase here, even if animals were tortured in the churches themselves. Cancer research means mainly a number of bored assistants going down to the laboratory every morning to vivisect, because they must do something with the money showered upon them; so they do over and over again what has been done a thousand times already. C. Me AD AM. Moruingside.

MR. JORDAN. M.P., AND FREE SCHOOL BOOKS Sir, — I was delighted to read in yesterday's Sun the remarks of Mr. W. J. Jordan M.P., in furtherance of his consistent support of the plea for free schoolbooks. He said that often a whole "L e -??' s , wages w-as used in equipping a child when it starts to attend a secondary school, at which a proficiency certificate allows it free tuition. These sentiments do Mr. Jordan credit. But I would like to ask him a question that very intimately affeots a very large number of his constituents, who are in even a harder case than those he mentions. Not only do they, as parents, have to provide the cost of schoolbooks. but they have to pay secondary school fees for their children, who are debarred from taking out their free places at the schools to which their

parents conscientiously feel compelled to send them. So that the parents in question have to spend not one, but several weeks’ wages to provide, in addition to books, the whole cost of tlieir children’s secondary education. Mr. Jordan rightly says, “when a child has won its proficiency certificate, .the Government should give every assistance with its future education.” He is right. No doubt his keen sense of observation convinced him of the equitable system of universal education obtaining in Canada, when he visited that Dominion as a member of the Empire Parliamentary delegation from this country. Will Mr. Jordan, in view of his expressed sentiments regarding free education for all our children, support, an amendment of our New Zealand Education Act to allow the winners of proficiency certificates to take out their free places at registered private secondary schools maintained up to the Government standard of secondary education? “I look forward to the day when education in New Zealand will be free,” says the member for Manukau. When justice is done to the parents of pupils of private, primary and secondary schools, then their pockets will not be called upon (as now) for the money to build, staff, equip and maintain those schools, beside which provision of the cost of text-books becomes a matter of very minor importance. I will appreciate Mr. Jordan’s reply to my question through your columns. KAIHOE. HIS AMBITION REALISED! Sir, — I have no complaints against Parliaments, or persons, acts or administrations, conditions or crazes, omissions or commissions. I do not mind the weather, nor do I think the talkies are ruining our native tongue. lam quite unconcerned about (1) reckless motorists, (2) the giving of seats to women in trams, (3) whether the roads are rough or smooth, (4) the evils of drink, (5) the vice of tobacco, (6) the doings of larrikins, (7) the rights of pedestrians, (8) the advantages of Esperanto, (9) the trend of the Young Idea, (10) the horrors of war. Incidentally, the problem of evolution leaves me cold, the problem of spiritualism annoys me, and the problem of disarmament is beyond me. All I know a !?out; Russia is that its people wear whiskers, and all I know about Germany and America is; that they seem, automatically, to supply practically mv entire personal and household requirements. lam hopeless on the ques- °- r Bl ?- 1 ® lr ! scho °'s, simply cannot follow political debates, have never tnf? ™ Et Davy, and thought—up till last week, when I found it by accident in a dictionary—that a caucus )\ as a sort of spiny plant. Finallv omikes nothin e about brides, or eartliquakes, or horse-racing or eoa! strikes. As a “Citizens Say” maa I

seem to be pretty hopeless. It is llja ' disappointing, for I did want to myself in print.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS “Fair Play.”—The incident took on Monday. It may be some before a prosecution takes one does. Or, again, there f a civil action. In either case letter, if published. would he F judicial to one of the could offer to give evidence oi you saw.—Ed. The Sun. “High Finance.”—The case ls and the man concerned has r'-iui to his home to start life afresh, au good can be done by reopening question which, after all, does* affect the administration of in New Zealand.—Ed. The Sun. “Inmate.”—Glad to hear that >'° u your friends enjoy reading paper.—Ed. The Sun.