The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES.” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1939. "FIRST THINGS FIRST”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20120, 14 December 1939, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES.” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1939. "FIRST THINGS FIRST”

“I give my assurance that ‘first things first’ will be the principle guiding the acts and thoughts of the Government.” These words were uttered by the Prime Minister less than three weeks ago in seeking the co-operation of the people on the grounds that “the prosecution of the war to victory is the paramount aim.” With those remarks of Mr. Savage it was impossible to express anything other than complete agreement. So long as those “guiding principles” were adhered to the Government had every right to ask, and every reason to expect, the co-operation of all sections. Unfortunately, there is a wide disparity between Mr. Savage’s precepts and the Government’s practice, for the people feel to-day that it is the Government itself that declines to co-operate in the war effort. Writing to the member for the district, the Minister of Defence states that “the need for a drill hall at Gisborne has been appreciated for some time, but it has not

been possible up to the present to provide the necessary finance for the purpose, and it is doubtful if, in view of more pressing financial requirements in other directions, it will be possible now to do so.” The letter should require little comment. The Government is pledged to place “first things first,” the prosecution of the war is its “paramount aim,” but it cannot afford to provide the essential facilities for training troops for military service. “First things first!” The Government is committed to an expenditure of between £70,000 and £BO,OOO for new broadcasting studios for the disseminaction of political propaganda. The Government is proceeding with the erection of a building to cost £IOO,OOO for housing the Auckland branch of the Internal Marketing Department—a department which so far has bungled everything it has handled, which bought thousands of tons of New Zealand potatoes and shipped them to an unknown destination, which imported onions from Japan and had to dump them on Auckland rubbish heaps, and which so mishandled the marketing of lemons that crops are being, buried and trees cut down. The broadcasting service has not been interrupted for want of a new building and there has never been the slightest suggestion that there are not adequate marketing facilities in Auckland. Yet the Government is going to spend nearly £200,000 on new buildings for these two purposes, but when it comes to finding a mere fraction of that sum to erect a drill hall for Gisborne—the need for which the Minister says “has been appreciated for some time” —it is not possible, because of more pressing requirements, presumably the new propaganda station and the monument to marketing muddlement, to provide the necessary finance. It is not necessary to revive all the details of the old drill hall controversy. The essential fact is that the drill hall was burnt down some years ago and there is no suitable substitute for it. The hall that is being used was too small even for the moderate peace-time requirements. Now that the war effort is the “paramount aim” it is totally inadequate for training purposes and not sufficient even to

meet the reasonable needs of office accommodation and facilities for the examination of recruits. Although the old building had been erected, partly at least, by public subscription, when it was destroyed by fire the Government collected the insurance moneys and diverted them to other purposes. Now, although it is officially admitted that a new hall is necessary—necessary in order that this district can play its part in the war effort which is avowedly the Government’s “paramount aim”—the Government cannot provide the necessary finance. But the Government, which is pledged to place “first things first,” can find the money for a new radio station and for the Marketing Department’s building, and it is finding £24,000,000 this year for public works, including more than £2,000,000 for buildings of various descriptions and £7,000,000, for roads, some of which are costly duplications of existing facilities which were more than sufficient to meet immediate needs. If this is the Government’s idea of “first things first,” if this is its conception of making the war effort, the “paramount aim,” then it has a strangely distorted sense of true values. It appeals for the co-opera-tion of the people but will not itself co-operate with them. Probably no other district in the Dominion has given a better response than Gisborne to the call for recruits, which, after all, is the most direct and most effective method of making a contribution to the war effort. The flow of recruits in the future will be encouraged—and the Minister knows better than most people just how sorely it is in need of encouragement—if reasonable facilities are provided for preliminary training in the territorial units. Today these facilities do not exist and unless the Government is prepared to provide them then the public will be inclined to suspect, and not without reason, that the Government is halfhearted in its war effort and that talk about “first things first” and the Government’s “paramount aim is just so much meaningless chatter. There is not the slightest question that the people of this country are sincerely anxious and fully determined to play their part in the war in which the Empire is involved, but the extent of their contribution must be regulated by the lead which they receive from the Government, and if the attitude towards the drill hall is an example, then leadership is sorely lacking.