The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1918. THE ESSENTIALS OF WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 March 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1918. THE ESSENTIALS OF WAR.

With which is ineorporateG The Tai hapo Post and Wairnanuo Nows).

This great war is once more brought pointedly under the notice of the people of this Dominion. It is not an increased demand for the lives of our manhood; it is not an urgent call for .athers and* husbands to leave their children and wives to the care or those who are useless a's fighters, but it -is; a call to those with money, who cannot fight, or are exempted from fighting, to lend their money, that .wealth • which they have been able to lay aside, and which is not necessary for their immediate wants in continuing production. Life and money are the two esentials in maintaining freedom—the right to own land and money and the appeal is not now to give life but td lend money at avery profitable rate of interest. Men of New Zealand know that the Empire needs the use of their money, and needs i z now—not next year, _ when money stores are larger. It is now the German menace is at its zenith; now is the time of crisis; Germany must he stopped in her diabolical career of murder, robbery and enslavement now. Is the auspicious moment for the Empire to be allowed to go by for the want of money? Will New Zealanders dishonour their compact with the Motherland and fail to send the last man and the last shilling at the very moment when victory or defeat is in the balance? This loyal, patriotic little land has sent one hundred thousand of its picked manhood to exorcise German diabolism, and money is now required to feed and equip them, to secure them from wanting anything that would impair their spirit and bravery when the great clasn of arms comes that is to decide this country’s and the Empire’s future. Our lads are in the trenches in France for our freedom, and so essential is money for their maintenance there that if there are any amongst us wdio are so unnatural, miserly and fearful that they will not lend to the State at a high rate of interest, then the law says it shall be taken from them by force. No greater calamity after winning the war could possibly come upon the custodians of the nation’s wealth than for them to once permit the driving in of the thin end of the conscription of money wedge. Once the financial ice is riven by the wedge of conscription, the greatest financier on earth could not commence to say where the disruption would end. Nationalise wealth first and everything else is very easily nationalised. We should strain every nerve and every banking account to avoid such disorganisation, as it would result in. We have to win the w r ar, or w'hat is the use of our money, our land or our industries? If we fail to wdn the wax everything we possess will be Germanised, surely we want no further evidence of this than that being given in Russia at this very minute. We feel extremely concerned about the compulsory clauses of the “Finance Act,” for we fully realise that nothing would cause such joy and jubilation in the camp of New Zealand’s anarchic socialists, amongst the leaders of the 1.W.W., than to witness the commencement of the nationalisation of money by owners of money rendering its conscription necessary for

completing the war. Failure to achieve | victory is a very real and pressing menace during this present year, and to save ourselves and our Empire we must stop at no sacrifice. Something is needed now that everyone is not privileged to give- or lend, and we have full confidence in all the money asked for by the Minister for Finance being willingly lent, and that more will be offered than asked for. We have this confidence because we believe that there is not a man in this neighbourhood who will fail in such a moment of danger to him and his property and country. Money subscribed to the War Loan is money lent to secure protection and safety of what we have accumulated, and of the land that ranks ™ T ith the ■ foremost in the world for its natural bounte'dusness and beauty. To allow it to~be’come the arena of revolutionary disorganisation from failure of those most concerned in doing their duty—well, it beggars one to find words to* characterise their actions. If every man and woman amongst us does his or her duty in this fearful stress there will be no danger of what may result from enforcement of conscription. With one or two exceptions every man in this district nobly did his duty when previous War Loans were issued, and there seems little doubt now but that we shall be able to say after the eighth of April that there was not an individual who did not take that course of which he'"will for ever after have the greatest reason to feel the utmost pride and satisfaction.