The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5th., 1916. WILL DISTRESS FOLLOW THE WAR?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1620, 5 October 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER sth., 1916. WILL DISTRESS FOLLOW THE WAR?

"IX our opinion,” says Land and Water, "it is false and immoral to apeak of 'inevitable distress following the war. To talk of it as inevitable i> to go half-way towards making it so. The main factors of national life are so entirely different from what they were .100 years ago, that no real comparison can be drawn between the close of the .Napoleonic wars and-the limes that are coming. Let ns here sum up brielly the child' changes since August, 101.4: —The lines! manhood of these islands of its own accord has been trained to arms and disciplined; the industrial population and output has been organised in an unprecedented manner; employment has been found for (he whole womanhood of th» nation, irrespective of class, and woman is learning by experience not only her powers but her limitations; then 1 has been an enormous redistribution of wealth: our currency has been broadened and rendered less rigid through the introduction of Treasury notes; we are beginning to realise wherein I lie true wealth of a nation lies —(ogive but two instances the greater attention now being paid ( I ) to infant life, (“) to agriculture; the dais' of citizenship has been re-taught by circiimsl a nee with a new and hitherto unknown elmpience; totally the knowledge constantly widens that material prosperity is not the iirst and last thing in life worth struggling for. Britain is passing silently through the greatest revolution in her history, and il out id the new forces now being created and released we cannot construct a labric that will withstand the temporary dislocations. which a reversion to normal conditions of peace must entail, il will be entirely due to our own apathy and lea ve-it -1 o-chance habit of mind which brought us two years ago to the edge of a great abyss. Bat we cannot conceive that this will happen again.’’