A TARANAKI CARNIVAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1916, Page 4

A TARANAKI CARNIVAL.

Though the people of Taranaki havo been very generous in contributing to the various war funds, no comprehensive and united effort has been made to systematically loosen the public's purse-strings in order that the dangei of not having a sufficient reserve of money for the wounded soldiers might be finally removed. A few thousand pounds are apt to arouse a feeling of strength and confidence when the calls are few and light, but when the real mid widespread necessity arises to help the thousands of soldiers who are fighting for us to-day, those thousands of pounds will rapidly dissolve, and only those districts which have stocked their finnncial cupboards beforehand will be aide to iVure comfort and happiness fur :ihe men home from battle. It is a truism that the economic trials of war sting a country in earnest after the din of battle has subsided. We therefore welcome the Taranaki Carnival, in aid of raising funds for our wounded soldiers and their dependents. We have the examples of Auckland, Southland, and more recently Wang.mui to assure IB that, properly managed, a .carnival in Taranaki will meet with a similar measure of success. The proposed carn>val is not to be confined to Kew Plymouth; the family in the hack country is going to piny its part just as much ha tlie people of the towns on the railway. I-lawera, Eltham, Stratford, Inglewood, Waitara and Xew Plymouth are to bo all organised to form parts of a big machine, wliieli will work for the whole province, and in the common c:iuse. Any suggestion of parochialism should be stamped out immediately, for if this element were given encouragement it would rapidly undermine the whole structure. With the launching of the scheme in Xorth Taranaki comes news of a similar move in South Taranaki, and now that both ventures are in their embryo stages, it is advisable that the organisers should he brought together, so that the two schemes may be blended to secufe a united Taranaki effort, every part o! the province moving in the same direction for the same goal. At Stratford 011 Friday a meeting of the Taranaki War Tielief Executive will be held, and the promoters of the carnival will take the opportunity of placing the scheme before the delegates. On the question of whether the district should divide or unite will rest the complete success of the scheme, and delegates are urged tu iullv consider the matter now, so that on I'i'iday they will go to the meeting equipped witli the'feelings of their districts, for on their decision will depend whether Taranaki's efl'ort is to be divided or united.