CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 1 May 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

.SHIRKERS AND LAGGARDS. Tn every community there' is to be found a certain number of young men who are absolutely callous in regard to their duties to themselves, their fellows, or the State. Probably nowhere is this more apparent than in a democratic country like New Zealand, where notions of universal equality readily take root and flourish. The outcome of this so-called independence lias become a serious blot on the national life of the dominion, and calls for drastic- treatment to exorcise the evil. It was- hoped that our system of universal twining would in great measure counteract this disinclination on the part of the free lances of society to become amenable to discipline and attain to real, virile manhood. So far the scheme has met with a fair measure of success, bat the number of "hard cases" is still far greater than it should be. New Zealand possesses in the aggregate as fine a quota of grand physical manhood as can be produced in any country in the world, and the progress the Dominion has made- in so comparatively short a period is mainly due to tins cause. Yet there are those who make us feel anything but proud of them—the shirkers, the laggards, the. "pointers," and the callous who preserve a stolid selfishness and remain utterly oblivious to every sense of national entity. They hear the call to arms and jeer at those who obey. They treat their obligation to undergo military training with supreme contempt. It is nothing to them that their country is in danger; not that they are cowards, but that their one and only object in life is to please themselves, and leave their neighbors to do all that is necessary to make things pleasant. Apparently they have never learnt what selfsacrifice means, nor do they wish to pessoss that knowledge. They are selfcontained—what else matters? In a time like the present, when the future of the Empire is at stake; when it is within the bounds of possibility (though we arc thankful it is not probable) that New Zeala'nd might become a dependency of the ruthless and unscrupulous Huns, whose brutality and infamy are so vividly referred to by a correspondent in this iasuc, that one would think the call for service to crush the power of the barbaric Germans would set the blood of every young man tingling with patriotic ardor, and burning with a desire to -avenge the victims of Teutonic lust and ferocity. Yet we see in New Plymouth and elsewhere territorials shirking the duty imposed upon them and calmly submitting to the ignominy of a prosecution with its attendant indelible record of conviction and punishment. Surely it is high time to make these shirkers and laggards realise that they cannot live in a country where they receive everything that is material for their welfare and yet give nothing in exchange. In olden times they would have been branded so that everyone would know their crime. To-day the very leniency with which they are treated only encourages their stupid defiance. Let there- bo an end of temporising. The times are special and call for drastic measures. The punishment for wilfully perverting manhood should be so severe that it would put an end to all this miserable dodging of duty, and arouse the defaulters to the necessity of establishing their manhood and performing the duty to their country that all rightminded citizens gladly undertake. There may be cases of hardship. All the more credit to those who face their duty at all cost and do not hesitate to make the most supreme sacrifice of all —to fight and die for their country's honor and safety. I

HAS THERE BEEN EXPLOITATION?

The Cost of Living Commission is beginning to show some signs of activity, but nothing has occurred to justify any high hope on the part of the consumer. A curious feature of the position is the attitude of the Commission towards Mr. Andrew 'Fairburn, of Christchurch. This gentleman, a partner in a firm of merchants and importers, placed before the Commission at its original sittings evidence regarding exportation at the expense of the public in connection with many linos of imported goods. He stated—and his statements have not been contradicted—that importers had made large profits out of the war by raising the prices of articles that were not affected- at all or that were not affected to anything like the extent of the extra prices. Although Mr. Fairburn offered documents in support of his assertions, his evidence was never printed, and he has applied in vain to the Commission for a copy of the official reporter's notes. Now he is offering to repeat his evidence if the Commission will sit in public. In the meantime Mr. Massey has stated that ho is having prepared by the Registrar-Gen-eral a comparative statement of prices prevailing in all the States of Australasia. The figures are not yet complete, but they will show, it is expected, that New Zealand has not fared worse than the Commonwealth has done in the matter of high prices during the period of the war. Whether that fact will be a proof that there has not been exploitation is another matter.