DUTY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2498, 26 June 1915, Page 7

DUTY.

Sir,—lt is obvious to anyone reading the daily papers that Great Britain mil require more mon, and still more men, if she is to accomplish what she has set herself on doing, in the fierce war she is engaged in. Great credit is duo to us for having sent forward the number of man we have, and the daily enlistments in Wellington appear to be fair, but there is 110 disguising the fact, when one looks around the circle he mixes in, that there are many mon physically fit, and who have no incumbrances or persons dependent upon them, who fail to realise the solemn duty they owe to the State at a time when the nation is in jeopardy, and I think that employers might give them a hint of their obligations to the Motherland, and if that does not move them, then take the extreme course. I should very much like to see the Government take the lead, as from my own knowledge there are many mon in tho Civil Service who should have offered themselves months ago, but will not unless compelled to.—l am, etc.. BRITISHER. Wellington, June 26, 1915. THE DRIFT FROM THE COUNTRY. ' .Sir, —In your leader of to-day, entitled "The Lure of the Cities," you show how the percentage of thoso in the counties has decreased from 59.44 in 1881 to 49.26 in 1911, while the percentage in the boroughs has increased from 39.80 to 50.14 during the same period. All this notwithstanding the numerous advantages you enumerate, as railway extension,' better roads, additional postal and telegraph facilities, the advent of tlie motor-car and motorcycle, etc., etc. Your leader is an admirable resume Of the position as it is to-day, but does not touch the root cause of the trouble of tho exodus from the country any more ' than it affords in its proposed remedy of better accommodation for 'married couples,' any real solution. In fact, in its laboured avoidance of any reference to the root of the difficulty, it vies with 5Xr. Hunt's carefully thought-out paper, which carefully avoids any reference likely to hurt agricultural sympathies, lo any man not committed, to viewing our land system as immutable in its perfection as tho solar system, it would at least appear significant that during this period of 30 years laud values have so enormously increased, and all available land been monopolised. "The lure of the cities" is a misnomer. U should have been rather, "The drive into the cities." That exactly the same effect is observed in older countries should surely point out to us where tho danger is. On a recent trip to the Old Country I saw enough of the evil effects of our land 63'6tem as carried to fruition to assure me all such remedies as hotter wages for labourers and accommodation for married couples are merely trifling with, the question. Why, Sir, in Devonshire alone there is enough land under a sane system of land tenure to keep all the agricultural exodus from England for the next fifty years. Landlordism, laud monopoly, and the absence of a sane appreciation of the proper relationship of the land to the State are the true cause of the rural exodus, and until we recognise this wo are only dallying with .the subject. People don't flock to the.cities for sentimental reasons. They are driven there for very practical ones.—l am, etc., X. Ngaio, June 25.