NATIONAL PERILS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1915, Page 6

NATIONAL PERILS.

(Contributed by "Utopia"). The above subject has been very largely written on of lute, only one phase of the question, however, having come in for thought and criticism—that of "shirking." And, for the moment, the evil or peril of our young men shirking their duty and heeding not the call to arms is indeed a very grave one, and demands the attention of every man and woman in the Dominion. Young men, the King is calling you to arms! The Empire needs your wholehearted service; you are wanted now for a higher, nobler purpose than you have ever before been asked to pursue. Can you not hear the voices of those bravo lads—your school-mate 3 and bosom friends—calling from Gallipoli, "Come and help us, or are we spilling our blood for home and you in vain!" Do not the voices of those who have lain down their lives, reverberate through hill and valley, over mountain and plain? And does not the freshening breeze carry to you their last appeal, "Come and finish the task we have begun"? Surely those who are left here will not let the cry pass unheeded —nay, rather let it spur us on to do ever better than before. Not a lad, youth or man in the Dominion but is proud of our gallant heroes of the Dardanelles, but why not add glory of your own to that already won ? However, shirking is not our only peril, for methinks that underneath it lies close our love of pleasure. We are a pleasureloving people, and find it hard, even in the midst of war, to give up anything at all whicli conduces to our own selfish enjoyment. No matter how many homes are bereft, no matter in how many hearts there is an aching void, no matter how long and loud is the widows' and orphans' wailings, our pleasures must go on. We are selfish to the cere—the majority of us—although, thank God, there are exceptions. Before me as I write, is a note intimating that a meeting in a country district is requested for the purpose of discussing the laying down of a tennis court. And from many a home there is a bright, bonny boy..gone or is going to do his little for the King and country, so that the rest of us may remain to have our "pleasure as usual." God forbid that any of war age shall engage in such trivialities while those voices are calling us from- England, France and Gallipoli. And another National Peril is the innate love most of us possess for finery and dress. We must outwardly look charming, no matter how heavily others are bearing burdens of poverty, sorrow and hunger. The pretty"*nicknacks in the shop windows of the city appeal to the majority far more than does the tale of distress from far-off Belgium. We cannot see suffering there —we are too far off—and so for the most part we close our ears and look at the dainty goods, and purchase our tawdry finery as usual. And still another and yet graver phase comes to mind. This is'the peril caused to future generations through our lack of parental control. "Spare the rod and spoil the child," said. Solomon of old, and so it is to-day. Our boys and girls in their teens (and under) are to be found on the street with undesirable companions; in the music-hall or picturetheatre late at night without parent or guardian: and often mere children are to be seen at late evening euchre pai'ties or dances until the "wee sma' hours." All this naturally tends to the gradual weening off of parental control, and the "Do as it please" air so common in children to-day. We need to hark back to the boyhood days of Lord Nelson to see the vast difference in the mannerisms of the present day children. And if we are to build up a nation of virtuous men and women for the future, we must at once begin in the home, in the day and Sabbath schools, to instill into the minds of the children those things which uplift their thoughts, ennoble their actions, and fit them fpr any emergency that may arise.