The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1918. GENEROSITY AND SENTIMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, 10 December 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1918. GENEROSITY AND SENTIMENT.

(With which is Incorprnrated The Taihape Post Lad Walrgnrhn News)-

During the years of direst peril to the Empire of which this country is a part, amid all the strife, the fighting, the mourning for those who will never return, and the concern for those who have been disabled, there have been inspiriting and heartening incidents which have contributed much towards lightening the load hud lessening the mental strain, Taihape is honoured with a generous body of settlors and workers and no words in our vocabulary are capable of expressing the admiration that has been evoked by unsurpassed generosity and noble sacrifice. A survey of subscription lists published in this Journal during the last four years wall disclose the fact that to an .almost general extent there has been no occasion to conscript wealth. It was not alone the danger of a German invasion that induced i sacrifices of time and money, but there dxists, refined and in the rough, that noble spirit of true generosity and humane consideration that are the hall-marks of nature’s gentlemen. By the kcart-rending ravages of plxguc more orphans and widows have become the nation’s care than came by legacy of war. In the care of ihesc unfortunate little ones; in fighting the destroying contagion, as well ns in caring for those left without their stay by f he remofselessnes' of war, the people of New r Zealand, and particularly of Taihape, have shown themselves v xstly superior to their Gover.ai.ncji>.. There has been a notable spontaniety by both workers .and givers amongst the people that has had no parallel action j or consideration by the State. Much of what the Government has conceded ( has resulted from the persistence with j which Ministers have been assailed; no j less in connection with- the now dying I plague epidemic than with respect to the operation of war. From a statement laid on the Table of the House, giving details of the various patriotic funds in New Zealand from the outbr?ak of war to the end of last March, it is seen that Taihape has given as much, or more, proportionally, as any other part of the Dominion for patriotic purposes. New Zealand people, with a Government subsidy of £228,145, have voluntarily contributed Just on four and three-quarter millions of money. Of this sum Taihape gave £20,314, and this does not include the amount that has been raised locally for Red Cross work, as this town has only a sub-branch of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John in operation. The Taihape and District Patriotic Society’s funds totalled £17,504, and the funds collected by the Taihape Women’s Working Club amounted to £2,810. On 31st March last the Patriotic Society had £11,813 in hand, the Women’s Working Club had £490. The Patriotic Society handled its £17,504 with a total expenditure of £124 in administration; while of the £2,810 collected by the Women's Working Club £72swere absorbed in ' administration expenses. This comparison appears to be very much against the Women’s organisation, but in addition to shop rent, the expenses probably include freight and carriage of parcels to the front, whereas the Mayor has relieved the Patriotic Society of any need to pay rent by gratuitously housing it in his offices. After the war came the plague, carrying off those the war could not touch, and instead of a looked for tiredness in voluntary giving towards the welfare of a large number of orphans we. experience a generosity again unsurpassed in .any part of New Zealand. In only a fort- j night nearly £4OO has been sent in j for the fatherless little ones, victims ! of the influenza epidemic, and many, whose names were not .at all familiar , on patriotic contribution lists, arc not figuring on the lists of contributors to the little ones’ welfare in their supreme loss. Government movement in anything outside usual routine is too ponderous and slow to be of the highest use and value; there has to be too much time wasted in words before it can act during the period that relief is most needed, but it seems that this district is rendered immune from such disadvantage by the substantia! sympathy shown by its settlers and citizens. The life of the individual is the first care of the State, but that supreme duty has been disregarded by Governments elected by property rather than life interests, and were it not for a populace superior to its government a much greater leakage of life . would result, and population

statistics would tell a more terrible talc. The voluntary giving of New Zealand towards life-saving during the last four years aud four months gives the lie to any statement which urges that the masses arc responsible for those black-hole slums, those life dctroying pits .and avenues of infamy that capitalistic governments have permitted to exist* While the Government remained inactive and hesitated to do anything to combat the plague in is early stages, the Mayor .and people of Taihapc had taken the responsibility of providing temporary hospitals that had become essential in the highest degree; an array of settlers joined the Mayor in a committee, giving the whole of their time for weeks, bringing their motor sparing themselves neither day or night in scouring the countryside, as well as the town in their self-assumed mission of mercy, bringing in whole families where the limited number of doctors could attend them, and where a noble army of voluntary women nurses made efficient nursing possible. Words fail one in adequately eulogising and applauding the grand, humane labours so determinedly persisted in by the Mayor and his henchmen with their motor-cars outside, and his nurses inside. The men driving their ears day and night during the strenuous, dark days of the epidemic will be remembered for a very long time after the epidemic has ceased to exist. People have already commenced to separate the carowners who worked to combat the plague and save life, from those who could, but who never turned a wheel in helping to save a solitary individual. Such statements of voluntary giving as that which has been laid on the table of the House cannot commence to list or categorise that voluntary help which has no equivalent in money. The Government and most other boards have not risen to the occasion in connection with the influenza epidemic; if the postulate that bo.ards arc minus of sympathy is proving to be true, it is time they were seriously considered by the people. Had the spirit of generosity been universal New Zealand would have voluntarily given ton millions towards soldiers and their dependents instead of nearly five, and voluntary monetary (assistance for children and widows would have shamed the .Government from a finance point, of view as it has from the humane aspect Taihapc may still be regarded as . a backblock town, but it can claim to have, a people that for nobleness of heart and high-toned sentiment, arc not surpassed by any other town or city* in the Dominion.