Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1018, 8 July 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say

CONCESSION CARDS

Sir,— In view of the number of tramway concession ticket holders in Auckland, would it not be a good idea for the Transport Board to arrange for conductors to sell these concession cards on trams? Regular travellers are often put to inconvenience when they are running late for cars, and are not handy to any shop where cards may be bought. Surely it would not inconvenience conductors to sell the cards on trams and it would show that the Transport Board was out to provide service to the general public. I hope this plea will be supported by other users of Auckland's trams. SPRINTER. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Sir, — As a constant reader of The Sun I have been "waiting for 3*olll* paper to give us a lead on the question of capital punishment, and in view of the amount of correspondence which has appeared in your paper, I thought you would treat the question editorially*. I think your correspondent Alfred Gregory has treated the subject in a most convincing - and lucid manner. In the 20tli century* especially among people calling themselves Christians, capital punishment should certainly bo abolished. Our Government should be aware of the fact that the death penalty" docs not abolish murder. As your correspondent rightly points out the psychological aspect of such a sentence must be taken into account. There are so many distressing features in connection with an execution that every sane, thinking man and woman would welcome its abolition. T cannot understand the action of our Churches in remaining silent upon a question like this. Here we have a man lying under sentence of death, and I am by no means condoning bis offence—but unless the executive interferes. this man will be publicly executed. Shame upon our ministers.aud the whole of our ecclesiastical institution when they* will not even take the trouble even to express their protest against an act which is rv, inhuman as horrible. A PARENT. OPEN MARKETS Sir, — I have heard several objections brought forward as reasons for our not having an open market. These are mostly from those who have not seen markets operating in other countries. or from others who are interested in the present system. First, by ! selling second-grade fruit we shall ! spread disease. —There is no avoidance of fungoid disease, only prevention. and no restriction. At the present time greengrocers buying in tinj market may buy eases of plums and ; peaches and find in a few days that ; they have gone bad from brown rot. ; Naturally diseases which can be » spread, such as codlin moth, will bv

(To the Editor.)

prohibited. Black spot and bitter pip j in apples prevent them from going into the cold storage, but for ordinary* consumption they-* are quite all right, and the general public would not perceive it. Second: It will interfere with small shops.—Well, so do the big department stores, but let us hope it will bring down prices and as for Li Hung, Wat Chow, well I do not mind if we do hurt them. Third: The market should not be near Prince’s Wharf or the centre of the City, as it is too valuable. —In every well-managed town and well-planned town in England and on the Continent, you will always find markets in the busiest part of the city. In some towns smaller than Auckland the market is in a wide street and the biggest shops face it. The choicest, dearest and most valuable piece of land is devoted to the market. York and Nottingham both have markets in the centre of the town. Fourth: It has been asserted that we should not have a market as we are different from the Home people.—Yes, I know we are mostly* Maoris, still Ireland. England. Scotland. Denmark, France, Germany and Holland, all have markets. We have a largo number of unemployed, we have hundreds of families with very small incomes, and we have scores of families who have to keep up an appearance on a tiny salary, who will all be glad to avail themselves of a market and buy cheap fruit and vegetables and farm produce in small quantities. Fifth: New Zealand is too young a country to need a market. —Yes, we are very young as long as we can borrow money* and pretend we want help. As a matter of fact. New Zealand is of age and it is time she was. self-supporting. RUBY E. WATSON. FORECASTING In accordance with what I told you privately some time back, the period from about June 22 to July 10 is proving conspicuous for earthquakes in New Zealand (not all have been publicly reported) and in other countries. I had hoped that my* writing would explain, before the time arrived, my reasons for saying this. The chief contributing factor is the interference of Saturn, which must necessarily be conducive to increased terrestrial disturbance for about nine days before and after his opposition to the sun on July 1. Another such period may be 1 expected to start on December 28. because of Jupiter’s opposition to the sun on January 6 next. In dealing with solar energy, common mistakes have been made in supposing that the sun radiates its energy equally* in every direction, and in considering the earth's share of it to be the exceedingly small amount which our planet would intercept at a dis--1 tance of 93.0P0.000 miles: also in supI posing that the earth is constantly* 1 deriving energy from the sun without j giving any buck. There arc return i currents, which actually remit to the i sun a little more energy than v. e 10- ; ceive from The rotating molte n interior of t*. in works upon exactly the same system «s tie sun uu > ! The two bodies may be regarded a.?

reciproc Aug dynamos. And the earth, in common with the other planets, is gradually* losing energy, while the central sun gains it. The energy, all an electrical nature, passes from one body to the other as a current passes from one terminal to another. In taking the line of least resistance, it rises perpendicularly* at first through the denser atmosphere. and in the lower latitudes, of the one body and descends, for the most part, perpendicularly* through the denser atmosphere of the other. This lower atmosphere of the earth acts at once as an accumulator, a. distributor and a filter —or breaking-down station. And muon depends upon the quantity of water vapour in it at different levels. 1' there be dry and damp strata alternately, a heavy charge of electricity may jump from one damp stratum to another, x>roducing lightning, which usually completes its descent to . crust in that form. But. if there be a , very considerable depth of dry air, : much of the electricity in the surcharged upper air will be forced to »** * the magnetic poles of the earth- Am** as it do* ? so. it sometimes produce* the aurora, with its radiating streamers showing different shades of ' at different heights, according to tn various gases through which it mu> pass at high levels. We have an example of this in the neon light now iw much used for electrical advertising. Though the occurrence of the auro is always associated with some di* turbance of the magnetic needle. ' - 1 rarely* connected with earthquaK which are commonly induced by electrical charges reaching the gro —and the earth's interior—in the lo latitudes. is A phenomenon akin to the seen in the zodiacal light, with the ferenco that in the latter we h®ve dene© of electricity* leaving the on its way to the sun. In the s. way we see in the streamers J* solar corona evidence of leaving the sun for the various p*« And we note in this case bow the c - z?;:* 1 0 1 r. i’lELl^*