The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1914. LOCAL BODIES AND THE DEFENCE ACT.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 April 1914, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1914. LOCAL BODIES AND THE DEFENCE ACT.

How best to deal witii shirkers is a question puzzling to the Minister of Defence. Wisely, we think, he is seeking for help from the local bodies. It would not be difficult for a borough council or a couiily council io arrange for the oversight of twenty or thirty lads

probably the number would be about that for the whole of the district between here and Wellington and if they wen , centralised in Levin or Shannon < r Otaki they could do quite a lot of useful work at stone cracking or sand tihifjfcing or itree-plantnig. In and around Levin there are all there l openings available for activity. So far, we regret to note, there is apparent a tendency to exaggerate the difficulties of the Minister's request. The discussion at the meeting of the Levin Borough Council last Monday night proved this: there was undoubtedly a cliss position on the part of certain councillors to meet difficulties despairingly. However, a bar© majority of the council carried a resolution that the council would b(preparod to help the Minister when opportunity arose; and it may be anticipated with reason tTiai by that time the Minister will have something concrete to put before the local bodie-s for consideration and decision.

We candidly say that the Minister's circular letter is less lucid than it should bo. For instance, it left in the minds of some Levin councillors an impression that the local bodies would be required to iind the wages as well as the work; in fact this argument was put forward as a potent reason why the Levin Borough Council should reply expressing its regret that it could take no action in the matter. Yet to anyone acquainted with the methods of a Government Department administering an Act which specifically provides for payments to territorials called upon to serve under the Aft, the suggestion that the Government's pecuniary liability would be shouldered od to the local bodies is absurd. The Massey Government is making an honest attempt to administer the New Zealand .Defence Act fairly and squarely, without fear and without favour: just as the Ward Government did. and as doubtless the- successors to the Massey Government \vill do. There is no room for political consideration in respect of defence provisions: all parties and all classes should unite to make a success of this most necessary Act, and to make t be lot of the shirker as onerous as that of the willing territorial, if not more so. There are honestly conscientious objectors, we know : just as surely as we do that for every conscientious objector there will be ten unconscionable ones. The latter class could be picked out Fairly accurately "on suspicion and for them there should await the camp slaughtering duties prescribed by Councillor "R. Pnuise, of Levin. Evon for conscientious objectors a fortnight on the business end of a flaying knife might prove stimulating, and reconcile (hem to Hie thought of handling a bloodless vifio.