Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 969, 12 May 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the

Editor.)

THE CHALLENGE Sir.— In view of the fact that a prominent visiting Rationalist invited some scores of local clerygymen to meet him in friendly debate—an invitation that was unanimously declined except for one man of courage—“ King Solomon” self-stul-tifies himself when he asserts that Rationalists are shy of saying “Come, let us reason together.” It is simply not true. No. The coyness is all on the other side and I am surprised that your correspondent, with many other earnest Christians, is not asking himself the reason why. Several hundred clergymen (with, one exception) unwilling to meet one lone Rationalist. What does “King Solomon” in his wisdom make of it? A.E.C. WAR BOOKS Sir, —- The article published in Wednesday’s Sun is easily the most rational criticism I have yet read upon the subject of war books. Personally, I do not take seriously the criticism which is only too obviously inspired by military professionalism. And neither do I accept the ill-informed condemnation by some male critics, who have never been within a smell of high explosives in their lives. My judgment of such books is based upon official facts and figures showing what war has done to men of all nations; that is medical records. I could quote bushels of such figures; but will content myself with a few from the records of England. And I don’t think they are a complete count, as they do not cover all forms of war casualties. These figures are: Driven hopelessly insane .. . . 6,000 Tuberculosis 36.554 Severely disabled, requiring constant attendant allowance 2,750 Severe, neurasthenics, borderline cases 2SS Epilepsy 3,426 These figures help to show the true beastliness of war through the mental and the physical destruction it brings upon men. And I say that any war book which portrays the conditions producing such terrible inflictions is a true and a faithful reproduction of what the war was. Even though that book may be just a personal record. it could never have been written without such knowledge at* first-hand. R. M. THOMSON, Main Body, N.Z.E.F. STRAP IN SCHOOLS Sir,— It was indeed a great pleasure to read the Rev. E. Mowbray Finnis’s article in The Sun, the subject being “Too Much Strap in Schools.” I hope that—following it—through your paper, we may have many interesting articles offered by mothers who are really alive to their children’s welfare. tVhen a mother tries to mould her child’s character from infancy what result can she expect when on commencing school the teacher immediately starts with the strap? A forgotten duster, dirty fin-ger-nails, and so many trivial little things are often the cause. There are exceptional cases, of course, when corporal punishment is necessary where a child becomes absolutely unruly, but with the average child a smile or a kind word or even a little message entrusted to him by the teacher will help to mould mind and character more

quickly than the continual use of the strap. If a child is in constant fear of his teacher, learning Intelligently becomes impossible. It is a great thing that the Education Board has taken up the subject seriously and is having specially trained women placed in the position of studying and teaching our children. Our schools would be far better, have higher attendance and brighter children without the stern discipline they are subject to from elderly spinster and bachelor teachers who really do not understand the child mind, but trv to mould the child to their old-fash'-ioned ideas. This is a subject I have long wished to see taken up in your columns. ONE INTERESTED IX CHILD WELFARE. “THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON” Sir, Your correspondent, ’’King Solomon,” has stated that Herbert Spencer was ’ The Father of the Theory of Evolution.” Without desiring to enter into a controversy, I might state that this is incorrect and Spencer’s master mind did not give Evolution its genesis. Evolution is no more a theory than the laws of gravitation, the conservation of energy, the indestructibility of matter, the infinity of the universe, etc. lam conversant with the works of Spencer and he was born hundreds of years after ’’the dawn of Evolution.” HERBERT MULVIHLLL. FORECASTING Within the past few davs The Sun has reported two things of much interest to science. Respecting the severe earthquake in Burma, the most important detail, the exact time, has. as usual, not been sent. Mv writin— will show the impossibility of prognosticating such an event without knowing both solar and local conditions. The taking of seismograph records must remain a pure waste of time and money so long as the observers neither understand nor report th* little that those , Can A each us - The Sun menta ined, too, that the passion play at Oberammergau took its rise from' the !; a l(\r' VIt e which Europe was stricken w tVv^ ea n r | wUI note that this A' r * 3 l Je:irs before the great plague Of London in 1665. This 33-year cycle is often found in the recurrences of epidemics, and some other events. 1 lit 11 V? me to the explanation of it offer' h Meanwhi >e. Please allow me to hy way of preface, a few further *ernarks upon sun-spots. atle^s’t S ? 0 so S o Were “ een by the Chinese . £f as * 1,600 > ears ago; they were seen w t S 3glan<3 v. in An£l °- Sa -on times; they by the Peruvians before the Spanish conquest. But it was not till early m the 17th century that English and ntlStS began to take notice of them and ever since then the solution of the f f l ?hc Pr m >lem has been the highest aim abl . est m en. The Scriptures and other ancient writings make occasional mention of solar and other astronotwo Pr We a find ass °^ ia “hn‘ i betwet^The * stran Kely enough, a funda-Thei-e is aV ln the rib -bone storv l- u„f, most probable explana<"hmh 111 gladly discuss lat«r> of! *he Star cf Bethlehem in a unique ; - -injunction which occurred apparently

just before the date assigned to the birth of Christ, at a time which it would be easy, though tedious, to compute. Indeed, based upon this, we could readily set out the details oi Christ’s horoscope which the Magi, as astrologers, presumably consulted. It will be gathered from what I have written that the movement of any sunspot in any latitude is alw*ays slower than the sun’s actual surface rotational movement in that latitude. Both the molten surface matter and the photosphere above it wash past the spot from west to east, always feeding the inflow most from the w’estera sld^ I might have added, too, that the rate at which any sun-spot moves is never constant: the speed decreases during development and increases again during the decadence of the spot. A comprehensive statement of solar workings would be too voluminous to offer here: it is all in strict accordance with the theory of differential rotation, and with all the innumerable details of all observed solar phenomena. But. th'* rc*markable features already men- £ tioned bear so strongly upon exact fore- ft casting as to call for brief explanation. | Xotwithstanding the sound principle | of the conservation of energy, science r has clung to the idea that the sun gradually losing its energy and cooling —that it and every other star must it last turn black and cold, and in considering the sun it has attributed to it the properties of a rotating solid. 1has erroneously thought that the sun. like a cooling cannonball, must be veiT much hotter at its centre than it ** near its surface, and that, seeing thp brilliant photosphere (brilliant upon i* surface only) exposed to us, is viously vaporous, the internal portk* must be vaporous also, and that. 12? sun’s weight (easily measured) mg a density or specific gravity' \ greater than any vapour we can 9 ine. there must be some tremendoxi* and mysterious compression. The silS tj did lose energy up till the time whea _ the last planet. Mercury, was bom; hat 4 during the present stage of its cyclic** existence it is slowly and surely r* - i gaining that energy. It generates it* | greatest heat near its surface. BeTieat® j the photosphere its more material body must be—and is often seen to f* liquid: indeed, with loss of energy 1,1 any rotating vaporous body cendens** tion must start at its centre. _ F. R. FiELBw <To fie