Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

NO CONFIDENCE MOTIONS Sir, — ♦ It -would not be out of place at this juncture to draw the attention of the electors to the waste of time in the House ot' Representatives at the expense of the country. We have listened to much trash and party politics a.ncl two no-confidence motion--, moved by the Reader of the Opposition against the Government in its first session. The Government honestly endeavours to live within the country’s income, and place taxation on those best able to bear it. The Leader of the Opposition must have known he had no chance of upsetting the Government. Mr. Coates has on many occasions stated he would never hold office on the Labour vote, yet lie expected Labour to vote the Government out, and place him in power, without giving the United Party a trial. SUBSCRIBER. THE FOURTH TEST Now that the fourth Test match is over, also the contest in the mud at Eden Park, one may ask who has benefited by the banning of. the relay of the Wellington match? Does anyone feel pleased over the attitude of those \yho prevented thousands of enthusiasts from hearing the relay from 2YA? Even if all Taranaki wished to hear bow its stalwarts were faring, the numbers would be small in comparison with Auckland’s population which hoped to hear the last Test described. Did any of your readers hear 2YA on Saturday afternoon? Ay a crystal-set owner I was greatly DISAPPOINTED. STATE LOTTERIES Sir, — I notice that a member of Parliament is advocating State lotteries. Gambling is indulged in, more or less, by every person in the country—from the man who gambles with an insurance company on the length of his life to the person who is happy to bet on the speed of two flies crawling over the window-pane. From horseracing, New Zealand reaps a- big harvest for the Treasury. Our women derive keen enjoyment and good, health from the healthful and clean excitement they find on the racecour.se. It is a great pity that the barbarous hurdles are still in existence and that at almost every race meeting some

horse has to be shot; for women so to the races to witness good sport, and when fine animals which provide that sport have to be killed there is an analogy between hurdle racing and bull lights. The State lottery is. of course, a big avenue from which a great flow of money could be brought to the coffers of the Government, and those who would contribute to such a "tax'' would be only thetse who were willing to pay it. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are sent from New Zealand to "Tatt’s": so why not have our own State lotteries? In New Zealand such an enterprise could be made to show a double-edged profit by giving, in addition to cash prizes, paid-up insurance policies, railway excursion passes, bonds expiring in 1940 and other assets the Government wishes to sell and may not be able to find buyers for. HAROLD SCHMIDT. PROTECTING CHILDREN Sir, — I read the article in Monday s Sun in which a missionary mentioned that children in one of the islands of the New Hebrides group had been buried alive. Surely the Society for the Protection of Women and Children should be asked to take some steps to have such outrages stopped. Could that body not communicate with the League of Nations? SHOULD BE STOPPED. LIFE INSURANCE TAXATION Sir. — Referring* to an article on life insurance taxation appearing recently in a Wellington newspaper, I desire in the interests of my department to make it clear that it is paying more in land and income-tax to the New Zealand Government than*any other life insurance institution, and on the basis suggested in the article, would probably continue to pay more. I take this action in order to remove any erroneous impression that the Government Life Insurance Department is receiving better treatment than its competitors.

As regards the statement that “it is now recognised that interest is the only fair basis of income-tax,” perhaps I may be excused if T say that very few, if any. of the leading authorities agree with this statement; in fact, the weight of opinion is that, if life insurance offices are to be taxed at all, there

are more equitable methods of t* ““ »££££?!&— ~ Wellington. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENT ••Mother."—The story of Ala-od-Din) and his wonderful is a part of "The Thousand ana .. Nights,” one of the y.L eale ThouS xr.a books of the.world. Th f , uce 4 to and One Nights” was European readers b> a d fli# named Galland, who dis . - nt o Arabic original, and transl French in the first decade- « eighteenth century. ! Ther* torv is lost in obscurity. pj r , existed in the tenth century I Sian collection of a thousand * told in similar fashion to a totf sand and One Nights. of "All Baba and the For, f , ver *ion is not found in any Orient** 6 „t of the “Nights.” and it w»“„ as in for some time that Aladdin * the same category, and had eluded in the collection W “ ilfir y In recent years, however, *• n , a ; has been found in two . t j,e manuscripts. one version story of "Aladdin was *r into English by S=. Lane-Foot