The Chronicle LEVIN. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1916. DEBATING SOCIETIES AND THE WAR.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 April 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1916. DEBATING SOCIETIES AND THE WAR.

In English and Scottish newspapers, published during the last six months, The Chronicle has seen frequent references to the doings of the debating societies. The war, apparently, has had no such effect upon t'bese bodies in the towns of the Homeland as it seems to have had in this district. Before the war set in there were debating societies existing in. Levin, Mana&au, and Otaki, but either by coincidence jr resolution tihey hare ceas. Ed to show any sign of life during the last two years. This, to our mind, is regrettable. The war goes on, and Nc.v Zealand is doing her part in it. Why, therefore, should it be 'hold that no public discussion should take place 011 matters of local or of world-wide interest? The time for debating such matters never was more ripe than it is today; the need: for unfearing public .utterance of suppressed opinions as to public policy never was "greater than it is now. British liberty exists still: we are fighting to maintain it; and seeing it does exist why needi we tear to exercise it? There are divers conflicting opinions and differing views as to minor matters arising out ot 'ha war, and. if the debating societies throughout the land were resuscitated, clear expressions of public opinion would be obtainable for guidance ft those in authority. To taCe one instance, we would refer to the difficulty now being experienced in raising the quotas of volunteers for active service. Most people attribute the oause to a widespread, desire for a system of compulsory military service. This may be so; 'but it may be otherwise. The

present writer was an advocate of compulsory military training long before it became popular in this country, and in advocacy or it wo nave u«v t r wavered; but now that tne desire lor

a system ot compulsory military service seems to bu oiystuU»sing in Mew jOealand wo see in it tne risk that it may;, come to use oeiore threat Bntain aoes her duty in tliib matter, and in view ol that iuot we are against uuuue hurry in the matter. vVliat is -Jie general opinion oi the puonc on that nidttei '( It is inaitculate. It may bo of our opinion; it may be resolved upon leading the empire. lx> should bo ascertained, whatever it may be. The revival of debating societies would form as goods a mouthpiece as couJd be desired. .The newspapers today l seem spellbound or dominated with the one idea, that the monthly levies made by the Defence Department must be gathered in willy ntlly; but til ere is another side to the question. It is this: that the original guarantee given to Great Britain by the New Zealand Minister of Defence was too high. If anyone doubts this, he may soe by turning to the list of quotas published last month, how very high the percentage is. In Borough, to take the nearest example, | the figures show that in about fifteen j months from March last every eligible man (fit and unfit) will have been called upon and drawn in, if all tne. requisite levies shall "have been obtained by due dates. Certainly there will be youths in their ninteenth xnd twentieth years coming on a 6 eligibles but these will not suffice to keep the list of present ellligibles at last year's numerical strength, tor the proportion of such youths cannot be in ratio to the totals ot the military men of all ages. The Minister for Defences, it seems to us, was swayed more by perfervid loyalty than by the cool calculation that any country is entited to look for in its milit- | ary -head, and the fact must be faced today that we are committed to a guarantee that is beyond muir real capacity without improper interference with the industries of i\%w Zealand. L From various quarters come complaints about inability to procure labour; farmers and sawmillers especially are feeling the strain severely; and u these and other industries of almost equai importance are to be sapped until they become unequal to the dominion's and the empire's requirements, the result to the empire's real strength of resistance will be detrimental instead of helpful. Ihis 'illustration, to give one out ot many, is a settmgout or some ot "the dormant opinions of the people that welt might tie brougnt into pu'bl.city. li the opinion is held only by a minority of the people, the minority must aceepu the general idea; but, so rar, the .public opinion finds 110 real expression. ( The average debating society is a cosmopolitan boay, and therefore worthy of wider acceptation than it commands as a general rule. Its pronouncements upon matters of public policy would be, at the present time, a whote6o'ue corrective to such blatant and ill-con-sidered hasty resolutions ot public bodies such as those ot Dunedin md that demanded the imprisonment of Mr Ashmeadi Bar tie tt for having told the British nation six months ago, the truth about the lailure of the Dardanelles that now is public property ancL accepted as truth by the oneeyed individuals who in October '.ast engineered the resolutions we refer to, and procured their passing by a number of road boards, chambers of commerce, and farmers' unions that would have been well advised iiad they remembered the Latin proverb ''Let the merchant Stick to his bales.