WE LIKED ST!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 34, 27 March 1942, Page 4

WE LIKED ST!

INVITATION to our readers to carefully digest the details of the Pukekohe scheme for putting the whole country upon a complete war footing which appears elsewhere in this issue, is extended with a view to assisting the local bodies of this, area to come to some conclusion on the point of supp< rting the proposals or otherwise. The suggestion, takes bold hold of the ridiculous situation pictured by periodic strikes and labour hold-ups at a time when the v/hole future of the Dominion is in jeopardy, and aims to place all men upon a fair-and just basis, with those who are active members of our fighting forces, for the duration. Can anyone honestly see what is wrong with the scheme,' which after all provides for a man to maintain himself and his dependents at a reasonable standard, and diverts all else to the country's war effort. For instance it aims at eliminating those who draw substantial incomes such as the carpenters who work side by side with soldiers in military camps, and draw up to £3 per clay against the privates 7/-. It makes for genuine equality of sacrifice, which the Government so fondly spoke of, yet was so afraid to introduce. When the very life of a country is threatened surely then everyone should be prepared to become an active defender, and here is the basic method of becoming such. There will, naturally enough, be always the person who cannot be persuaded to pool his or her own little asset for the common good, but as the warning bell grows louder and more insistent, they must and will be prepared to fall in line. There remains of course the incurable unionist, but he is best instanced by the wharf lumper who falling into the sea, swam for eight hours and then drowned.