Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

“0 LOVELY NIGHT!”

Sir, — I am troubled by a neighbour’s dog which is tied up outside his house not very far distant from the room in which I sleep—or try to. He bays at* the moon when there is one and when there is no moon he just bavs at the memory of the last one he saw. If I had my way, and there were any justice in the world, he would bay no more, but the law won’t let me ” kill him. The owner of the dog apparently is a keen baying “fan.” Sometimes I think he is out o’ nights harmonising with the hound, but I may be wronging him! Can any of your readers tell me what redress I have or how to stop a dog’s nocturne, short of giving him strychnine? WOW.

VOLUNTEER TRAINING

Sir,— After the Government’s drastic action in abandoning compulsory military training and making retrenchments in the permanent staff, we have Imd the extraordinary spectacle of military units throughout New Zealand, but particularly in Auckland, volunteering service, in the belief that their action will make the Government go back to compulsion. Will it? To me, it is the worst possible way of securing the return of compulsion. Seeing their willingness to continue as volunteer trainees, the Government is certain to come to the conclusion that compulsory training is not necessary. And that will mean that New Zealand will dodder along with a badly organised system of defence. If those who were in the now detunct compulsory system really want defence to be on as large a scale as before, their best action would be to refuse to train as volunteers. The Government: would then be confronted with the awkward circumstance of New Zealand without a single territorial or officer in training. Compulsion would be reintroduced quicklv. PASSCHENDAELE.

CHILD WELFARE

Sir, — 1 am directed by the Auckland Womens Branch of the New Zealand ~r Party to write concerning statements which appeared in your newspaper of August 12, in reference to the Child \\ elfare Act. The branch dissociates itself entirely from the statements made by Mrs. Soljak to the fcociety lor the Protection of Women and Children. The branch has from time to time interested itself in cases

brought before its notice, and after investigation, of such cases we have met with entire satisfaction, the department’s officers giving us everyassistance possible.

further, we as an organisation have no fault to find with the welfare officers in their conduct of the Children’s Court, having no knowledge of any cases where harsh treatment has been meted out, but rather to the contrary. Every care is taken in order that the child who comes under the jurisdiction of the department meets with the fullest justice. As for children being put away for trivial offences, it is certain from the large numbers of cases which never reach the Children’s Court that proper investigations are made, in order that children should have every chance in life. The Act was framed to protect the children of this Dominion, and is certainly a progressive one, when we look back to the days of our childhood and remember the treatment of delinquent children. The Act. as it is, may not be perfect, but at least amendments can make improvement possible, through constructive and not destructive criticism. A. M. CASSIE. Hon. Secretary.

THE POOR—WHO ARE THEY?

There are cases of real hard luck, j especially those coupled with bad ! health, that honestly compel our deep- • est sympathy, and with whom many of us have pleasure in sharing our substance even at a sacrifice. But. let us stop and think. Many who are receiving help really do not deserve it. When we visit their homes we frequently fmd a large back section unkempt and without a sign of a vegetable. Besides having the benefit of nice fresh vegetables, think of the saving to a family when you consider for instance that a 6d packet of pumpkin seeds would grow say thirty pumpkins 1 and yet we find working men’s wives 1 paying at the present time 3d a Ih. for pumpkins. I think there should be a strict lookout by, say, our ministers in cooperation with the social workers to see which are the real deserving cases and which are not. Such inquiries might be asked:—“Are you in a Lodge?” “Do you work or do you play « when your half-holiday comes?” “Do you drink?” “How much do you spend on smoking?” A social worker re- 1 cently said in my hearing: “Would to ; God the mothers would stop home and < look after their homes and tlieir i children!" Is it any wonder we have j 1 so many juvenile cases, or worse still. | . divorces, when the home is neglected j

and that restless spirit given as example for the children. Then there is another thing asketl. Why do business men erl T - married women whose husbands a employment, thus swelling the 11 U . n V. J of the unemployed? It means the bread out of another man s m 5 and that of his wife and familyit fair thus to increase unemplOJ® and burden our social workers, f isters and generous folk who set - too much? Also, why do our businejj men employ the boy or girl parents are wealthy, and who say only take up work as a pastime--1 would think the deserving , those industrious people who n big struggle to make ends m are not drawing a big wage and doing overruling they know how save, and v.-lio make an honest et to pay their way—a credit to then, selves and their country. WASTE NOT, ANT nv