Hokitika Guardian and Evening Star TUESDAY, JAN. 2 1917 NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 2 January 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian and Evening Star TUESDAY, JAN. 2 1917 NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

It is usual to associate the New Year with fresh resolutions and determinations. As a people there is room for many fresh resolves just now. We are at war, and there is the wish to win the war. If we would have tfce will to win the war quickly a huge wave of resolution might pasa over this country and do a great deal of good. There are those who would elog the recruiting efforts both voluntarily and compulsorily. Such have neither the will nor the wish to end the war. There are those, also, who wonld check industries which play their part in ending the war. These, also, are witbont wish or will to end the war. Again, there are those who traffic in necessaries, aud will accept only prices which give a great profit. They are in the same category as the anti-conscriptionist, the striker, and the "go slow” individual without the will power or the ardent wish to help end the war. These folk all require to open their minds and their hearts if they are going to fall into line and assist the Empire in this time of crisis to pull through. Those who are anxious to see the end of the war aud are yet powerless to help in a material way, require patience. We all need to show confidence in our leaders whether at Homo, abroad, or

in our own Dominion. We all must make resolutions to display and maintain confidence and decide to help where possible in this great effort to be put forward to win the war. Then may we will it, and then only may wishes come true. But how is this to oome to pass F What can be done in these far off Antipodes to win the war ? Germany is going to organise its internal population. Is that not a hint to cs in New Zealand ? At this moment there is the constant fear expressed of a general strike in this country to paralyse commerce and industry. We are supposed to be walking on very thin ice as far bb this danger is concerned, and if'it came to pass dire consequences might follow, if the people as a whole did not recognise their duty, and in the emergency riso to the oocasion as a people and support the Government in maintaining law and order as it only should be maintained. There is this fear of the enemy> within the gates. More, the enemy within the gates i 3 so hampering production in regard to some natural product*, that with its wealth of resources, New Zealand is short of commodities already. Take coal as an example. Report hath it that transports, and ocean-liners carrying necessary products to the armies across the seas fighting our cause, are held up for ooal! Should this be, and if it be, how long is the Government and the country going to tolerate the position ? We give the report for what it is worth, but if it be true, then the sooner the Government on a hundred platforms throughout the country take the people iato their confidence, and ha speakers will not speak in vain. The people of this country need to be organised as our enemies are organising, and in New Zealand a great Loyalty and Liberty League should be established, and every man and woman above tbs age of 18 called on to siga a simple pledge of loyalty and decision to assist in upholding the national liberties entrusted to the Government of the conntry. Such an enrolment would show tc the Cabinet and th 9 world at large where New Zealand stands in this war, and its resolution to win through at all costs. The Govern meat could begin with their own staffs and right through the great civil and publio services of the country call on cyery man an<| woman eni-

ployed therein to subscribe to the pledge. By this meats a useful clean-ing-up process could be indulged in, and the country wonld know exactly where it stood with its employees. The same system could bo adopted with the public and local bodies, and so on right through every walk of pnblio and private life. This great League could then be organised as from each town and district, and a vast nrmy of men and women would always be at call to assist in controlling industries and commerce in such a way that the country, and indirectly the Emp ; re’a canse, should not suffer, The opportunity for this course of action is now offering, and if the Government wished for a means to remove once and for all the terrorists from the country, here is the means ready at hand. The general body of publio opinion may be trusted to see fair play, and the class wbioh deals fair has uonght to fear from such an organisation a? is now suggested. If New Zealand wishes to profit from the war by a reign of new conditions, giving not only martial peaoe, but also industrial peace and prosper.ty for all within these fortunate isles, then the time for action to lay the foundations for all that is possible after the war, should now be seized upon.