Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 992, 7 June 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

SEX EDUCATION Sir.— Your correspondent, “Field Punishment No. 3,” has advocated the use of the lash as a deterrent to sexual offences. What he advocates is one method which would produce the right effiect, severe though it may be, and a relic age gone by. Old remedies, after all, are often the best. But what is the value of dealing with an effect, ar.d allowing the cause to flourish? If we suffer from a form of “sickly hysteria.” as your correspondent rightly suggests, we also suffer primarily from a lack of education in sex matters. There is today, too. a disregard of anything in the way of religion as “wowserish” and unnecessary to life. I would suggest—demand, if I could—that parents throw aside their foolish qualms against telling their children simply and sweetly about sex, its wonders, and Its dangers: that the pulpit and the Press Combine to awaken the public conscience to a problem more difficult than that of unemployment. I believe myself that a sane religious life is the

only sure safeguard against the loose moral life, against the sensuality and sin which will be our downfall, individually and nationally, unless we WAKE UP. FIELD SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY Sir. 4 We have all heard what was said of the prophet in his own country,” and know the experiences of such public benefactors as Gallileo, Pasteur Lister and others whose minds were in advance of their times. Yet, one marvels at the treatment meted out to our local scientist Mr. F. R. Field, and feels keenly tne conditions which have so long allowed a coterie to sway the Government and the Press, to the detriment of progress. It has remained for The Sun and Sun readers throughout the country to do justice to the individual. Public feeling is ripe for the movement, and it is to be hoped that the Field Scientific Society which is being formed will become a successful organisation. (Continued in next column.)

Mr. writing upon lorocastin?:. which is now appearing in The Sun, natura-AV- suggests many question?, which -u-au perhaps be answered later. For insitnce, I should Ik pleased t» know \i-i >v Mr. Field is so positive that no distal reus earthquake can occur at Auckland in the near future. * ' VENTS CHAMDERLAK, e. • ■ DF'I.NKING BY WOMEN jiz every meeting of licensing comdrinking in 1 lotels, and all sorts of dire threats are made to licensees if they permit the \ ractice to continue. Is this quite A Ur? The law permits licensees to sell liquor to women, and if they do why should they be threatened? Yesterday, Mr. E. C. Cutten. S.M.» said: “With regard to hotels, there j/5. no power to deal with licensees for : Tttpplying liquor to women because the U w permits this and a general prohilt ition of it might not have the suppoi t of public opinion. But if the reports a n any hotel show that it makes a speed al business of supplying women with drink, particularly of supplying drink to young women, the Licensing Comnl ittee will be in the position to regaci 1 this as bad conduct of the hotel anti to deal with the licensee according ly.‘* Here W€ havo a magistrate tting the licensee in serving women is doing a lawful acu vet on the other t»and he says if they do it the commitw e will regard it as “bad conduct.” 1 f women become drunk in an hotel then, of course, the licensee and the \wmen can be deal: with in the same way as any other offender. But sur%*ly it is not -‘bad conduct” if a licent ee serves a perfectly respectable v. ; q man with a glass of stout after a harii •day's work at the wash tub. Nothing lii» said of a society woman who accorapaiiies her husband to a fashionable hotol and has a cocktail, but if her peon r sister has to sneak in a furtive naanner to the back door of an hotel fojr a more humbie drink she is held urT »tor opprobrium. Personally I do not hold, with women going into hotels at at . but as the law remains tt is I turn* it farcical for magistral es and police to speak as they do at 1 icensing committee meetings. _ M. EKE MAN. INDIA Sir, — It would seem that no mere com irking sign of a changing British attitude toward Indian aspirations - could !^ e found than that provided t\v the Secretary of State’s address th® Associated Press Conference* a day °r two ago. Surely every lover of India, as likewise all those who are working for a more consolidated Empire whose strength shall lie in liarmcoy an<l unity rather than in the fon’ed control of unwilling subjects, wfi'l j>ay * warm tribute to a Secretary State who has so proven liis manhood as to rise completely above all vitiat’d troversies and reveal himself *to y* the true friend alike of the Xhnpite and the India he serves. In hLC pr°" nouncements we find real pr:Hfb c " ability marked out on a backgrotSmd o. high idealism—a quality all too Tare among our statesmen. Mr. \W<d?" wood Benn speaks for his people the Government he represents iq * manner which his compatriots wl/ 1 heartily endorse, but which must ii*evitably cause discomfiture to tlaosg who have noisily clamoured for a mora repressive attitude toward India. And indeed, were his noble sentiments reechoed by us all, India would find but few barriers withholding her from *- larger measure of self-responsibility and the more buoyant national lif® which would result. Mr. Benn ha® stated the Indian position in a manner

which can lea&ve but little to be desired. and the reaction in all countries——but more especially in India —i* certain to be wholesome. But alas* it is to be feared that such tarseeing men as the present Secretary of State and the Viceroy* are so far ahead of their time that tSae rank and file both in TV est and East: will be apt to ignore their wise lead, and follow instead some mischievous will-*o’-the-wisp in the gathered gloom of mistrust which each race has come ter feel for the otherBut never was to A- ranee and goodwill more in need than -today. The mighty heart of the Empire throbs in the East no less than in the West, and, divided against itself, must lose its force. Mr. . speaks of the antiquity of India * civilisation, and thie nobility of her people, and he is confident that are quick to respond to an ideal when once we have seen it* Here, then, i 9 ? ran ’ i ea l— tne acceptance, befor* it becomes too late, of India, the timeglorified. as a willing; partner-nation, sharing equally with us those privileges which are the oommon right of a great federation of nations. R. EL HANSEN, representative New Zealand and T _ India League. June 5.