CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 282, 7 May 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

XHW ZEALAND'S PART. Tiie Prime Minister rose to the occasion. at Te Kuiti on Wednesday evening, and his stirring words as to New Zealand's part and duty in the great world conflagration will meet with the hearty approval of every patriotic man and woman in thq Dominion. In helping the Motherland we are but helping ourselves for it needs not a minute's reflection to foretell what would happen to us if the Kaiser's legions were successful. In the Boer war, Mr. Massey reminded us, the expenses of our contingents . were defrayed by the Imperial authorities. Tn this war ( when we have already sent i away to the front almost double the number we had in South lAl'rica throughout the war, with an equal number to follow almost immediately, we are taking upon ourselves the whole financial burden. And we should lie—and we believe the whole of the people are—willing and proud to do it. Xot only that, but to give to the Empire more than all the gold we possess—the lives of our most virile and bravest men. And we will continue to make this supreme sacrifice. Already, the Prime Minister talks of offering another 25,0110 men, makii,"altogether 50,01)0 men, and even that number, will t-ertainly be needed. Tt is a big sacrifice for a young and sparsely populated country like Zealand to make, but it is not as great as Britain herself is cheerfully bearing. To come up with the Mother Country, we have, on a population basis, to put over (10,1X10 men in the field . A contemplation of these figures brings home to us the realities of this stupendous war.

TUB SHIIIKEUS. rheie, are numbers of vonng men in every community who have not Vet felt the "call,-"' men who have no ties and no responsibilities; the very sort of ; '"en the Empire needs and is earnestly calling for. They :l re the shirkers. The problem is how to catch these deliberate shirkers. Appeals to them have no value: what is required is practical Government intervention. If we had our way we would insist on these men under»-o-ing military training at once, not necessarily at cam],, but on half-holidays and evenings, and then, if volunteers are short, draw upon them, They should not be allowed to .lodge their obvious duty. Scraps of conversation by these shirkers is given in a recent number of the D-nnedin Star. I„ response to the .query: Why are you not at the front?'

t-'iU' iuiMVi'l' was: "Not mo. I'm waiting to jump the billet of the fool who has gone." In another the reply wa«. "I've saved a Bit of .money, and I'm off for a Bit of.'c holiday. I'm not taking on any war:" Is ft possible to " catch" sncli youths by means of popular speech, song and music celebrations? And what of that class of individual who is not unknown in this province, and of whom a correspondent writes: "lie has been doin" his level best to dissuade some of our boys from enlisting"? We agree with our "Dunedin contemporary when it adds: "The workers and dwellers in the cities are not living up to the high privileges that arc theirs. Great statesmen and ministers and newspapers may well a>k ( as they observe the signs and evidences around thorn: What of the night? Tvaige sections of workers refusing to produce the output of necessary material that is well witlm ther means; appallingly large numbers who are the degraded victims of their own self-indul-gences in strong drink; tens of thousands who, war or no war, are bent on pleasure-seeking, even though in the seeking they destroy not only their own souls but the nation's as well; and, which is perhaps the most disheartening of all, the absence of that one commanding and authoritative voice that should and would still all murmuring. At this troubled, anxious hour, and until the war clouds have passed, there should be no paltering with temptation. This Kmjure. lias yet to prove that it ran bear the „tiain that is being put upon it, and until we once again stand on firm ground there can be no dealing with tkose things that are of doubtful repute and unworthy the services of our hbdi calling." °