PATRIOTISM AND PROFIT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 239, 18 March 1915, Page 7

PATRIOTISM AND PROFIT.

A FARMER'S FINK FXAAIPLE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Palmerston North, March 17. Mr ,P. A. Al'llardy, a well-knowp Alanawatu farmer, has donated £lOOll to the Belgian Relief Fund. In a letter to the ."Staiitiarfl covering the cheque he says: — " As a producer and one who is deriving increased revenue from the efforts of those who are dying, fighting, enduring hardships and torture, having their "country laid waste and their homes destroyed, it is my duty to return something to those who are so nobly defending our existence, whose sufferers, wounded, maimed and destitute, need immediate care, attention anil assisttance. The increased price of produce is, in my opinion, conscience-money or ill-gotten gains—gains derived from the British and their allies on land and their fleets at sea. Whatever we give is urgently wanted by those who are holding up our side across the sea. The only consolation left to Belgium is her honour. For this she has laid down here life and sacrificed her country. She is still fighting to help us and our allies to smash the awful oppression which threatens our existence. Do not let us withhold onr generosity or stay our assistance until it is too late, for this nation did not hesitate to fling itself in the enemy's path, and so prevented a war which might have lasted many years and been of grave consequences to the colonies as a whole. Let us not stay our gifts behind suggestions that the enemy may got portion, or that tliev should be first driven out of Belgium. We have assurances that the money will be spent in the interest and welfare of those for whom it is intended, and the appeals through the Press afford reading which will open the hearts of those in a position to give and assist. Surely our country is not going to be found wanting in loyalty to those whose debt it is impossible to repay ill coin."