Radiation source lost
Two medical men attached to the Dunedin Hospital received a shock the other day when they discovered that a tube of radium was missing from the radiology department. Its present-day value is something like £150.
Train doing the devil’s work
To the editor: Sir, Surely the representatives of the Dunedin churches must be all on holiday, seeing no one of them has yet put in any protest against the new Sunday train from Dunedin to Palmerston. Probably they make no protest because they consider such a protest would be a waste of energy. Waste of energy or not, it is clearly somebody’s duty to protest, and I do so without any hesitation or any apology. In every civilised country it is every man's birthright to have his one day in every seven. It is not putting the matter too strongly to say that the Government is acting the part of Satan in tempting the people it is supposed to be governing according to the principles of Christian justice and equity. There is not a shadow of doubt that swift retribution will overtake our country unless we speedily amend our ways. Even at this moment a deadly epidemic is knocking at our very doors; and if it works much more havoc we shall doubtless have requests from the Government to the churches to pray that it be stayed, just as the churches were appealed to for special prayers when the nation was in peril during the late war. — I am, etc, C.B. Jordan, Secretary Port Chalmers Ministers’ Association
Train of thought questioned
The secretary of the Port Chalmers Ministers’ Association protesting against the Railways Department is concerned about the demand that will be made upon some railwaymen for Sunday work. We are perhaps not less alive than Mr Jordan is to the desirability of preventing unnecessary encroachments upon the Day of Rest. There are, however, certain classes of workers, including railway and tramway workers, telegraphists, newspaper workers, and many others, from whom Sunday labour is required in order that the convenience of the whole of the public may be served. In the particular instance of the Sunday train to Palmerston the Government is, it should be perturbed to learn, "acting the part of Satan in tempting the people." It may be presumed that the tramway authorities throughout the world are similarly "acting the part of Satan," and that if "the principles of Christian justice and equity," as our correspondent interprets them, were fully observed Sunday travelling would be confined to those persons who are fortunate enough to possess their motor cars and competent enough to drive them without hired assistance. Mr Jordan seems to imply that the visitation of infantile paralysis constitutes a form of retribution for our sins. It may not be to the point that Otago, where the work of Satan is being done, is as yet entirely free from the disease and that the onset of it preceded, and did not follow, the establishment of the Sunday train to Palmerston. Mr Jordan may be presuming overmuch in venturing in such a matter to speak for more than himself. — editorial — ODT, 30.1.1925
Compiled by Peter Dowden
