RING UP AND PAY UP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 136, 1 August 1941, Page 4

RING UP AND PAY UP

Sir, —Now that the Home Guard organisation in the Whakatane district is upwards of a year old. I trust that I shall not be out of order in referring through the BEACON to the subject of the telephones of Home Guard Commanders. My idea, and that of others, is that some body should pay the H.G. Commander's telephone subs<^pti o n in each district. He is a wherever he lives, and he spends; 'a lot of time at his phone when other people are engaging their leisure. Now that the Whakatane district Home Guard has got some funds I woul-rj like to see something done about giving each H.G. commander a fnee phone for the duration of the war. ihe Home Guard movement is a voluntary one, and the more enthusiastic the guardsmen are the more out of placket they will beU Our H.G. commanders in each centre are noAV well and truly out of pocket, even although in all cases, I believe, their companies have had a tarpaulin muster to pay for benzine used by their commanders on H.G. business. We can hardly expect the H.G. officers to vote themselves free phones out of the funds which they administer, but they should have free phones. If it cannot be done out of good capitation money or Gynn khana profits let us "take round the hat" before the dairy bonus is spent. And not only because the commanders have to use and answer their phones such a lot, but also because their wives must be sick and tired of answering the phones when people ring up on Home Guard business. Anyone on a party line where there are H.G. enthusiasts knows all about this. Perhaps the BEACON can throw some light on this question. Yours etc., RANKANDFTLE. (For the information of our cor-; respondent we have ascertained up to the present no applications have been made for assistance in the direction he mentions. The two local commandants already have their own private phones, but if his letter refers to district commanders we have been informed that should the matter be officially raised and assistance required it will be sympathetically dealt with. Ed.)