The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1917. DO IT AT ONCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 31 August 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1917. DO IT AT ONCE.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hape Poet and Waimarino News).

No public journal in this country will be doing' its duty thaf does not emphasise the fact as strongly as it is able that the State must have twelve millions of money immediately to enable it to carry out its obligations to the Motherland, to the British Empire and to all the Allies, in prosecuting the war to a successful termination. Two millions only are in the Was Fund Treasury, and on the eve of the last day for receiving subscriptions there are ten more millions still wanted; ten million pounds have to be invested by the people of the Dominion in the next two days. Avcragely, the million people, which is the sum total of our population, have to lend the Government ten pounds each. Put this way the difficulty looms up almost to hopelessness, but when the wealth of our people is counted we find that ten millions constitute a very small portion of that wealth, a mere fraction. A million poor people wishing to do something for their children put in thirteen shillings each and another mil'lion goes into the War Chest. If every man woman and child who has a pound to invest ' will put it into the War Loan they will materially help to win the war and they will be casting bread upon the waters that will return to them with its accumulation of interest earned. The nature of the legislation being enacted by our Government indicates how urgently the money is needed. It also tells us plainly that if we do not subscribe the money it will be taken from us. This is something new, and although we are temporarily staggered with the idea we shall find that the facts are of a nature that will not be denied. The time in this war has come when it is found necessary to force upon our notice by coercive legislation what is our duty. We have patriotically shouted ourseli ves hoarse; we have danced and sung our bravest and best blood out of our midst; we have liberally, nay, generously given to buy comforts for our men, anc" to establish a fund to assist those w 10 may need help on their return, but what are we doing towards

the main thing; that which matters; what are we, not giving, but lending at big interest, to help to win the war? This is the question that is at the j heart of .every man who is worthy to. j be called British, whether he be Eng- j lish, Irish, Scotch or Welsh. On Wedday twelve millions are wanted and only two of them are yet subscribed. What is this huge sum wanted for? It is wanted to buy boots, clothes and food for the eighty thousand brave ■fellows we have ; so enthusiastically sent to keep Teutonic barbarians from coming to New Zealand and seizing all we possess, and from desecrating our home life and all we regard as sacred. The money is wanted to provide our manly lads with the rifles, cartridges, machine-guns, artillery, bayonets, and all other equipment wherewith to fight; to provide them with means to make themselves immune from the deadly gases with which they are of times enveloped by a brutal enemy. We are not asked to lend twelve millions of our money to find necessaries of existence for 'other countries; there is no charity about it. We are told that the men we have sent away will be without food, clothing, and equipment if £he twelve millions are not forthcoming; that not only will the sons, brothers and fathers we have parted with not be able to stand up to the enemy, but they will' be stranded in the foreign land to which we have sent them, foodless and without clothing. Now, this may seem overdrawn, but it is fact to exactitude; truth stripped •of all trimmings, as is amply verified in the nature of the law that Parliament will adopt within the next day or two with a view of forcing this truth upon us. People with an income of seven hundred pounds are to be compelled to see their duty; however, blind they are to their duty regarding the winning of the war, the compulsory clauses of the Finance Act, already passed its first reading in the House, will give them a rude awakening. When the whole truth is fully grasped by the nation, the Minister of Finance will only have to make its needs known and the money will be Avillingly invested in Treasury War Bonds, Post Office Ward Bonds, or War Certificates. We go on raising all the produce we can; we are storing it in thousands of tons ready for transportation to where It is needed, until we are almost overwhelmed with plenteousness. Under such conditions it is indeed very difficult to bring ourselves to realise the urgency for money. But it should be tolerably easy for us to understand that all this stored produce that which has already gone, as well as the thousands of tons which are yet to go, have to be paid for. Some of it goes to feed British soldiers, and Britain pays for it, but a good deal of it is required for our own lads, and we must not snivell at having to tend the money to our Government for this purpose. Our produce must be paid for, or, there can be no money in circulation wherewith to pay our wages and our way. The war has set up an extraordinary position, and in the measures Parliament is enacting we have to realise the only available steps that ere possible to cope with it. We say frankly that we have no fear about our people doing their duty by their country. We have not written a line under any fear of that kind. We realise however, that it is impossible they may : not fully appreciate danger, privation, loss and suffering that uei'ay may be responsible for, and our mission is to impress the urgency for immediate action, rather than the bald fact that money is needed. Our people are going to lend to the State, and they are going to lend liberally, we want them to do it at once. A million subscribed now will' probably go further than a million and a quarter in only another year's time. Some have already handed in their help to win the war over the Post Office counter, others are doing similarly through their banks. This week we learned that one of our small farmers had just handed in one thousand five hundred pounds, and wc have no doubt at ail about the money being freely, even enthusiasticalty loaned, but we would urge upon everyone to DO IT NOW. Monday is the last day for receiving subscriptions.