LAST MAN ON THE FARM

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16266, 17 July 1918, Page 5

LAST MAN ON THE FARM

ATTITUDE OF WELLINGTON BOARD. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) ' WELLINGTON, July 16. At a sittibg of the First "Wellington Military Service Board to-day, the act-ing-chairman (Air D. McLaren) made a statement in reference to the "last man on the farm" and the attitude of the Board in regard to appeals on this ground. A great many people, nt> said, had been misled, and certain tiesigning individuals were taking advantage of the Government's declaration that production Smust be kept up. He read an advertisement from a certain newspaper/offering a prpperty for saio, and commencing, "Be the last man cn the farm," and added, "I don't know whether the individual who concocted that and sent it forth had the impression. that it was going to mislead any Military Sen-ice Board." From the commencement his Board had been guided solely by its order of reference —Section 189 of the Military Service Act. There it bad statutory directions.. The Board had carefully considered the matter of keeping up production. It was not a question of military service or production, but of military service and production. The Empire had to maintain both. Therefore the Board viewed the question of the "last man on the farm'' from the standpoint of actual conditions existing There had been numbers of cases where there was one farm at the outbreak of war, but that farm had oecomo four or five farms by the time the appeal reached the Board. In other instances people had bought farms, clearly to protect themselves from giving their services to the Empire. The Board was not disposed to be thus misled.