The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1915. FROM OLD TO NEW.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 31 December 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1915. FROM OLD TO NEW.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.)

To-morrow we commence a New Year amid the scenes, as it were, of the most tragic paradox in the world’s history. During the whole of. 1915 most of the greatest nations on earth have placed their manhood and their wealth into a scheme for mutual destruction and annihilation. The latest statement by the German Imperial Chancellor on why Germany is fighting is not because she has any desire of World supremacy, but because Germans want to live at peace in their own country, and when it is understood that Germany is only warring to save her existence, peace will come. Britain and her Allies are fighting because their territories have been invaded and threatened with invasion; to drive back the invader and to make themselves secure from future attacks. In the dying days of the old year the British Cabinet has adopted the principle of compulsory service, and the early days of the New Year will find the British Parliament in one of the bitterest legislative struggles that it has ever engaged in, for the oncoming Conscription Bill will be met with the most determined opposition if only by a minority. Several British Statesmen have urged the adoption of conscription for several years past Lord Curr.on some, eight or nine years ago said he favoured compulsory military service because it would breed a conception of citizenship involving a common duty upon (all. It would 1

take the titled aristocrat on the one hand 'and the costermonger on the other, will put them side hy side in healthy comradeship, and teach them to carry out together an equally common duty to their country. Whatever the outcome of compulsory service may be ■■ on the conduct of the war, it distinctly discloses the fact that voluntarism has fallen short of the Empire’s necessities. Compulsory service once adopted in Great Britain i s certain to follow in Australia and New Zealand. Britain and her Allies are determined to end the war at some time during the year we are now on the eve of. (New Zealand is loyally performing her part in sending her sons to strive for the Cause of Empire and almost for the first time she is found in deep mourning for those who have so manfully fallen. Otherwise the 'war has been a source of profit; ;her products have realised such high prices as are enabling her to provide for those who come from the battlefields unable to follow their aforetime occupations.

During the past year the wave of progress in this district has gathered force and is rapidly rolling onward. We shall pass out of the old into the new leaving little to regret so far as the commercial progress of the whole territory is concerned. Beyond the drain upon our manhood by the War we have not been overtaken by any great calamity or infliction. The town and district may fairly claim to having done its duty from a patriotism point of view, and has raised a huge sum of money to be given for patriotic and humane purposes. Local institutions have flourished, particularly valuable and effective work having been accomplished. The Borough Council is dealing in a business-like way with the financial millstone that is holding it down, and there are indications that ways and means have been evolved that are likely to prove of great benefit and value in the near future. The. Chamber of Commerce has done yeoman service to the town and to the district, many important conveniences and improvements having been effected through its efforts. It will be hoped that the New Year will bring a crop of redoubled effort which is so necessary in a rapidly growing and progressive town. The Agricultural and Pastoral Association is extending its good work 'and by the schedules and catalogues it has issued there i s uo lack of evidence to prove that the townspeople are giving very liberal encouragement to the producing community in the surrounding territory to demonstrate that the land hereabout is equal to growing 'and fattening stock with the best localities in the Dominion. Our hinterland settlers, who are responsible for the magnificent output of fat stock and wool, and, as a corollary, the huge increase in the wealth of the district, have demonstrated that they are fully cognisant of their immediate and future needs, in that they have enterprisingly devoted a considerable part of their earnings to the erection of modern freezing works that will not only prove a source of increased profit to them, but will also contribute largely to the progress of the town and its commercial interests. There are many other minor instances of the towns advancement occurring in 1916, and these, with those briefly referred to leave nothing in doubt about the splendid prospects 'ahead of Taihape and its enormous stretch of rich backcountry. Taking everything into consideration —'commercial, social, political, and international —there is nothing to cause hesitation in sincerely wishing all our readers A happy and increasingly prosperous New Year.