The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMABINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1916. PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 15 December 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMABINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1916. PEACE.

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

The Press of nearly the whole world is sceptical about the honesty and sincerity of German peace proposals. It is, perhaps, not singular that the old-fashioned Whig journal that has consistently supported the AsquithHaldane thought in the past should be the only voice from either Britain cr America that has not even yet learnee to appraise German sophistry at its true worth. This journal, the "Manchester Guardian," still has blind faith in Germany's expressed intentions, while all other newspapers anc: most thoughfult people of the world have grown to regard them as efforts to conceal the truth. This journal's faith is unquestioning, for it says the German proposal is unquestionably a genuine offer, and the British Government should treat it as such, ascertaining definite terms, interchanging direct views, all parties putting their cards on the table. It proceeds: It would be unthinkable folly and a crime to continue the war beyond our definite aims if they can now be secured. There seems to be a naiveness about the last sentence that almost suggests a German origin. Surely the writer does not believe that Germany has the slightest thought of conceding what the Allies are fighting for? Tie idea is positively Zangwillian in its belief in German intentions. The old Whig school and its journal really think that Germany will now accept any terms in reason; so she will, but they must be in accordance with German reason. Two years ago this month a leading American, in close communion with Germany, assured American leaders that the Allies could then get any terms of settlement in reason. The boastful Prussian march On Paris, which was to end in the capture of the French capital in six days, had been frustrated, turned into a funeral march, and Germany knew she could not win the war; and would then have gone back "as you were," but Germany had disclosed the fact that peoples of the earth could never

be safe from slaughter, rape, and murder, while Prussian militarism was free to reinstitute campaigns wherever its leaders willed. What we have to consider is whether it is Germany or the Allies that are pursuing a gigantic gamble in life and treasure.

Every Briton is appalled by the huge butchery of the flower of the Empire, but should that impel a brave people to agree to a cessation of the struggle now, leaving it to break out again in ten-fold horror and disaster when it suits Prussian militarism, For a temporary truce, should they like cravens seek quiet, knowing that their country and their children would be subjected to a more perfected campaign of frightgfulness in the near future? It would b. an act of insanity and cowardice to discuss peace with Germany on any such understanding. AVe are told that if terms are not agreed upon lighting can continue, but can the Allies, with over two years of experience, trust Germany? Russia has its "Manchester Guardians," who are willing to conclude a peace on what are called reo onable terms. A noted Russian newspaper asks whether the ideals for which war is raging are the same today as when war commenced, and it asserts that they are not; that it is now a political war, and he asks whether it is not a fact that conservatism is rising? He quotes England as the best example of his thesis. England, he says, the freest country in Europe, has step by step given way to conservatism; all old liberal tenets have been abandoned, but this Russian spoke too soon. British liberalism of the Whig type has been forced by the British people to give place to a mote democratic liberalism; a liberalism that will not temporarise or hesitate to prosecute the war till all that B'ritons hold sacred shall have been snatched and made secure from Prussian barbarism. The people of Britain are fighting Britain's battles; it is the spirit and will of the people that is shaping the destiny of the Empire, and it is by this expressed will and spirit that the most democratic government Britain has ever been ruled by is now in power. The people have no political shibboleths; whether the man calls himself a conservative or a socialist, if he has proved his ability to achieve the utmost towards winning the war, he is placed in power by the will of the people. He is gauged by what he can do, and is doing towards subduing Prussian militarism. There are not many in this colony who will be deceived by the "Manchester Guardian" views. The leopard cannot change his spots, and we are having notable experience of the reliance that may be put on the word of one of the Hohenzollern leopard cubs in Greece this very day. The British people will not permit any maudlin red herring to draw them from scenting the real danger. Germany, undoubtedly, is sincere in its desire for peace, but it is the peace that only such a truce as it is now cunningly seeking renders possible. As the New York "Times" definitely states: The only basis of an enduring peace is the destruction of Prussian Militarism.

At the recent conference of .Scottish miners at Dalkeith it. was stated that 3000 women were employed on the surface in Scottish coal mines, and that the number is increasing.

A very cheerful optimist strolled into the Christehurch Area Group Recruiting Office a day or two ago. He was a farmer, which fact probably accounted for his optimism. He had been drawn in the ballotj and his method of explaining the reason for his call at the recruiting office was to say, with a blight smile, "Well, my luck's in. I've drawn a section in France.

The idea of a premature peace, both in Canada and the States, and all along the line," said Dr Tbacker, who has just returned from America, "is absolutely out of the question. This baittesting, peace-brokering business of Germany's was quite expected over there. That was the universal opinion as I found it, but evidently it has been precipitated somewhat by the best man in the British Umpire, Mr Lloyd George, being put at the head of affairs."

A good story is told of a fourteeu-and-a-half-year-old boy, a son of a solicitor, who enlisted in the army. The lad disappeared from home on three different occasions and joined the army, once under an assumed name, but each time being claimed by his father and discharged. 'A few days after enlisting for the third time, he joined up once again and as he seemed bent on being in the army his parents lot him stay. The boy spent several months in France, reached the rank of corporal, and for a very heroic deed won the D.C.M. He was badly wounded in the arm, and sent to England. While in the hospital in England he was given leave to go home and see his parents. Unfortunately he forgot to get his pass, and while at home was arrested as an absentee. This proved too much for his father, who once more told the facts about the boy's age and obtained his release.

Mr W. F. Masscy, Prime Minister) of New Zealand, hopes to leave for Vancouver in January on his return to the Dominion.

Mr Chas. Ryan, one of the first selectors in the Ohino block, was in Taihape yesterday. He is still holding the section originally drawn.

The ratepayers of the Feilding Borough Council have carried a proposal to raise £7OOO for an electric lighting and power scheme.

Jim Madou, the Indian, who, with a white man, George Cormack, discovered the Klondyke Goldfields, died recently in poverty.

The Auckland Harbour Board lias decided not to allow any of its buildings on the waterfront to be issued for meetings at which the question of conscription is to be discussed. Similar action has been taken by the trustees of the Trades Hall in Auckland.

The Lloyd George Ministry may be regarded as middle-aged. The oldest member is Sir Robert Finlay, who is 74 years of age, A. J. Balfour is GS, Lord Milner and Mr \V Long 62, Sir George Cave GO, Bonar Law 58, Lord Curson 57, and Lloyd George 53, A. Hender-fjonj and Austin vChamberlain 53. The youngest member of the Ministry is Lord Derby, who is 51 years of age.

In a letter to Mr Lloyd George, Sir Joseph Ward congratulates him on his accession to the Prime Ministership of Britain, and expresses the hope that ho will have complete success in carrying the war to victory. Sir Joseph Ward says h e is confident that the outlying parts of the Empire will loyally and heartily continue co-operation until the bitter struggle is successfully ended.

In the annual report of the Taranaki Oil Lands and Development Company appears the remarkable fact that in the bores, at a depth of 490 feet, kauri gum of a very fine quality was found, an evidence that the "Damara Australis'' must have been distributed over a much larger area of Xow Zealand in bygone days, as at the present time it does not exist far south of Auckland.

While in conversation with Mr Okey, M.P., in Wellington, on Friday evening, the Hon. D. W. S. McDonald, Minister for Agriculture ,stated that nine ships would be leaving New Zealand this month, and each of those would take a certain amount of dairy produce and meat. At present, said Mr McDonald, there were four ships in sight for January,, and he hoped this number would be increased.

The perfect character of the German spy system in Britain was well illustrated in collection with the employment at the front of the new war weapon now known as "tanks." On more than one occasion the Germans tried to locate the place at which they were being made, and three days before they were employed at the front the German soldiers were supplied with a special kind of bullets, which were supposed to be able to do them effective injury. Happily they failed.

An old and well-known figure in Wanganui, Patea and Taranaki distracts has just passed away at New Plymouth in the person of Mr Dan Hughes. During the war with Titokowaru he acted as guide to the soldiers. Ho was at the first Te Ngaotemanu fight. On one occasion the friendly Maoris fighting with the pakehas came across three Maori babies. They promptly killed two, and were about to despatch the third when Dan Hughes arrived on the scene and saved its life. That child is now Mr Fox, the well-known interpreter.

When a lady reader of the Taihapc "Daily Times" received her paper last Saturday, and saw a large four-page supplement, she exclaimed, ' ( The war is ending, we are going to have peace." When asked why, she replied, "When the war commenced the "Times" ceased issuing a supplement; now the issue of the supplement is recommenced the war will end.'' The lady assured those to whom she was speaking that she had no idea of joking She regarded the re-appearance of the supplement as an omen. It is perhaps singular that at the moment the lady was speaking the German Reichstag had been called to secret session to adopt and pass on the sensational peace proposals that are now being anxiously discussed throughout the civilised world.

Speaking in the south on Tuesday, the Defence Minister said that in almost every district the Farmers' Unions and farmers themselves had a rough-and-ready • organisation by means of which farmers were getting away and neighbours were managing their farms in their, absence. That system wanted extending. Farm labour was a difficult problean, and the Military boards would be informed that there were certain industries as essential as lighting at the front. Coalmining, the woollen, meat, butter, and cheese industries were essential. The question of utilising the labour of the country for home service had been before him proposals prepared by the department. Regarding this matter, he would like to know whether the Labour people were prepared to discuss with the Government a problem of that kind.

Th c National Bank, Wellington, has received a cable advising that thc board lias declared an interim dividend for the half-year at the rate of twelve per cent, per annum, which will be paid on January 3.

As evidencing the fine patriotic spirit displayed by natives in the war, Kaingha'g gang, comprising a number of natives working in the Wallingfor district (say s the Napier* Telegraph), decided that no bonus should be accepted for sheep shorn whose owners are serving the Empire. Captain A. S. Wilder's sheep were consequently pur through at the rate of 20s per hundred.

We would give a final reminder, of the Convent School concert in the Taihapc Town Hall to-night. A splendid programme lias been prepared, consisting of orchestral selections, concerted songs and dances by senior and junior pupils, dialogues, piano solos, duets, and quartettes, and four scenes from thc cantata, "Bed Biding Hood." The sisters of the convent have spent a lot of time in training the pupils, and wo hope to see their labours of love rewarded by a bumper house.

The statement that has appeared in various quarters that the nickname "tanks" was given to the new armoury motor-cars by the British Tommies is inaccurate. The name was deliberately given by thc War Office authorities when the building of them commenced. s o as to assist in keeping the secret of their manufacture. A great many people knew that there was a department called the Tank Department at the Ministry of Munitions; but it was generally assumed that -it had something to do with th e taking over of the distilleries by the Government, which was announced about the same time as the construction of the tanks began.

Dr Tkacker, who has just returned from a trip through America, in speaking to a pressman, said: "The only deplorable tale I have to tell is that both Canada and the United States know so little about New Zealand. They think that we are an island off the African coast, and that we can take a ferry

boat to Brisbane. But when we strove to tell the Americans where New Zealand is and all about New Zealand, they were so interested they threatened to invade this country. AVe ought to let them know where we are and what we are. The American wage industrial unit at the present time is supplied with nearly six times as much horsepower, electric, and otherwise, as the British, and is producing nearly four times the output of Great Britain per head.

The Government's inflexible determination not to issue passports out of the Dominion was embodied in a speech made by the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Internal Affairs, at Tuakau. He said that the responsibility for, issuing passports was on his shoulders, and that recently ell his ordinary work had to be suspended, so numerous were the aplications for passports. In some instances the male applicants were accompanied by their wives. "There is not to be an exemption. There is a clenched fist which holds the door, and they will never get out of it," he said. He further stated that while the Defence Department is in charge, no other application than a death in a family or such like would be considered, and there would be no alteration to the present svstcm until after the war.