Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 934, 29 March 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

THE SWEDE CROPS Sir,— I noticed an article in your paper on the 22nd inst. regarding 1 the deer menace in the Taumarunui district. The farmers in the district appreciate the interest you have shown in taking the question up. Although the season has been open some 10 days, the deer are still as numerous as ever on the swede crops, which most farmers don’t start feeding off for another three months. If the deer are left alone the farmers won’t have any swedes left for their stock. R. HANDLEY, Taumarunui. “ONE REMEDY” Sir, — , I notice that the Old School of Thought in regard to girls’ upbringing is holding forth again. “Well, girls, you should be sitting at home doing fancy work, instead of drinking cocktails. You may entertain a gentleman friend until bedtime (9.30). He may thread needles and wind wool until that hour, but you must not go to the door with him, out of mother’s sight.” My »advice to those who think that way is to let the boys and girls alone. I am a mother, 46 years old, and I have a daughter 24 years old. My husband prefers to sit at home and read, but he doesn’t stop me enjoying myself at dances and theatres. Today I feel just as young as the day I was married. I don’t look a day older than my daughter, who is proud of me. My advice to those mothers who think that the youth of today is going to the pack is to take Nature’s medicine themselves—go to dances, wear beautiful clothes, powder their noses and keep young. Modern girls can look after themselves. SMILING MOTHER. LACK OF CONSIDERATION Sir, — One of these days a motor-cyclist—-and the one I have in mind is a member j of that maniacal number who pass the Auckland Hospital after “lights out”— is going to come a crash, and when the accident does occur my only prayer is that he will be placed in the" Wallace Ward. I wonder if the harebrained, speed-drunk motor-cyclists, who delight in “stepping on the juice” at an ungodly hour of the night—or morning ' —ever give a thought to the pain- ! wracked, nerve -wracked patients who ; toss about in their sick-beds at the hospital? Night after night, just when patients are slipping into the relief of a blessed cessation from work-a-day noises—and particularly those sufferers in the Wallace Ward—the stillness is rent by the approaching roar of a motor-cycle. Not content with traversing the easy grade after crossing Grafton Bridge with the engine running at normal, the cyclist must give an ; imitation of the broadsiding exponents now catering for Auckland’s amuseI ment A speedway is the proper place

to create such a roar, but one would expect that even the least intelligent of these “flaming” ySuths would have enough grey matter under his hat to realise that a hospital is the last place at which noise is welcomed. Sir, this is a question that needs serious attention. The doctors, matron and nurses are aware of the existence of this evil, but so far I have seen no published complaint. If only those unthinking cyclists could see the added pain thev leave in their wake they would blush with shame. Cannot something be d ? ne < J'°. Prevent this unnecessary state of affairs? As an ex-patient of the hospital I would appreciate your aid J ,™ OW that ma ny still in their sick-beds would add their fervent thanks if you could bring about the abolition of the present evil. Ido not exaggerate when I say that dying men have had their passing made harder bv lureiv hrott ! e “ opening cyclists, and surely there is none so callous that an appeal to his conscience will not stand?ng. a SPark ° f pity and EX-PATIENT. MAORI DIALECTS Sir,— " US S? £? n?^ 1 • Sm yth s statement in his letter of Monday last would have been silfß ment to quell those turbulent gentle latest outburst from a. •+ e Hori Taiawhio, compels mo n.TL U> n avofd U tik” Ce v Step 1 endeavoured to avoid taking 1 , because of mv rp^rri As LLIfoTTS -T° r : Association! a i enow New Zealander I mn tio S n r t ° h at e i I SlvP erS ° f Ulat etganisa°£Vird “ « LSitVo?^ lor the Maori race, but for our count? v Coming from such a quarter, the erroneous statement re the Waikato dialect being the standard Maori speech astonished me, and my query as to this Demg correct was an honest attempt to ascertain the truth. Subsequent inquiry elicited the fact that the report of the address and discusnm Iu P P lleCl to The S “" reporter Tti,? . th ® sain ® as when prepared meeting. The chief speaker of the evening had made it clear that w S nn P h ti Wa s the stan hard speech and. t ? e dlscus sion which followed ! ’ : ress was, as your correspondents say, quite informal, it seems to have been agreed by the majority present that such was the case. Evideatly f th ? se Waikato warriors are more facne with the pen than with nZ n tf U t e, ' tor a PP ar ently they made no protest in support of their con vieaL that meeting. I shall not UT arguments in favour of the Agapuhi dialect, nor shall I carrv dus correspondence further, though I should be pleased to debate the ouestion with your correspondents, if time permits. . th ,® meaning of the word hoong-areka, I understand it to be trickery”; as it implies action, not i speech, the terra “Billingsgate” can

have nothing to do with it. The English rendering of the Maori words at the end of my former letter Is “Why use trickery when the truth would settle the matter?” I am amused and intrigued over “Thikombia’s” quotation: “He wahine, he whenua e ngaro ai te tangata.” I have been familiar with this old proverb since I first knew Maori. Truly, it is by women and land that men are lost. In this case some men are not only lost, but “tuio raruraru.” Hoiano. M. B. SOLJAK. FOREIGN LABOUR Sir,— The North Auckland labour market is well catered for by the large number of foreigners, who are getting quite a good footing in that part of our Dominion, and encouraged by the previous and the present Government, are making the most of their opportunity. Hundreds of these men are at present employed on public and other works in preference to our own. Mr. Coates had a wonderful opportunity of practising what he now preaches to the people of New Zealand while he was in power, and with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition now uttering the tame sentiments, the question of British preference may shortly be made quite a possibility in the Far North, in particular, and in the rest of the Dominion in general. If the people of this fine country are rightly urged to trade within the Empire, then it is essential that the Government follow out a. policy of employing British labour to tho last man, and for ever scrap the penny-wise and pound-foolish policy of patronising foreign labo jr in any guise whatever, owing to its suppos*<£ cheapness, and thereby alleviate tt»a» distress caused by unemployment among our own people. If the present conditions are allowed to ge unchecked, a British labourer in th» North. of Auckland in a few years to come will be a rare specimen. DYNAMITE.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS C.E.K. —You have not supplied you2 'address.—Ed., The Sun.