VOICES ACROSS THE PACIFIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 496, 24 December 1948, Page 5

VOICES ACROSS THE PACIFIC

Sir,-The article Voices Across the Pacific in your issue of December 3 described the beginning of a programme to be broadcast by children of Auckland schools to those in the United States, and possibly in Norway as well. This is very praiseworthy. However, in the broadcast by one schoolboy I was horrified to read that in describing "sport" he included birdnesting. I wonder how this mention of so-called sport will be received by the children at the listening end. Are New ~* Zealanders aware that "God’s Own Country" is known overseas as having a greater percentage of cruelty to animals than any other English-speaking country? Not only have I read this in an English paper, but I have heard a Scottish woman state that whereas in England and Scotland an owner of an animal attends to its wants before his own, in New Zealand ‘the reverse is the rule. But one does not need corroboration from outsiders;: there is too much evidence of cruelty to animals before us every day: horses starved to death, dogs chained up year in year out without being released, birds in cages left in the blazing sun or exposed to icy winds with no hope of obtaining shelter, cats mutilated, dumped or tied up in sacks, and left to die miserably, traps to catch rabbits and opossums, and so on ad lib.

I once heard the dreadful scream of a rabbit caught in a trap and will never forget it. The point is, is this world-known cruelty of New Zealanders the result of a boy’s upbringing? Do parents instil into his mind the fact that birds and animals feel pain? Why is he allowed to rob birds’ nests and consider it "sport," and not taught to try to imagine the feelings of the poor, robbed motherbird? Why is the boy not taught to watch the building of a nest and the wonderful work put into it, the different kinds of nests, the habits of birds, and all the interesting things connected with their daily life, or are the mothers and fathers too busy to bother with such "trifles?" The world would no doubt be a better place if children were taught to be humane.

SANCTUARY

(Mount Eden).

(We print this letter because of its obvious sincerity, but it is a pity that our correspondent has not been more careful in some~of her statements and less hysterical in others.-Ed.)