POSSIBILITIES

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1916, Page 3

POSSIBILITIES

To the Editor. Sif,— I The statement as to what this Dominion is capable of doing, as made by Mr. J. B. Laurenson recently, should be heartening to those who have the interest or welfare of this country at heart. There's no doubt but that the inhabitants are indifferent to the possibilities that can be turned into actualities if they would but work for the common good. The old individualism that has been running the Empire must go, and the great war, surely, will bring home with sufficient force the fact that we as a people must "go up one." Quite recently the Hon. Mr. Hanan drew attention to the fact that as we produce the wool we could produce the manufactures from that wool which we send to other countries in the raw state, and, after paying all sorts of charges, import as manufactured articles. Why should we not investigate these matters and get at the reason for the manufacturing not being done here? I notice that Mr. Laurenson omitted paper-making, and I feel sure that We could produce more than sufficient for our needs. Some years ago the lute Mr. Wm. Courtney stnt specimens of our woods to paperpulp manufacturers, and they were highly appreciated, but it remained at that. What is the matter with 115 that >ve cannot develop industries that are lying dormant? It has come to the people of Britain through the war that they have to be up and doing, and for the future their country has to be more self-con= tained, and it applies in equal force to us. Are we of to-day doing our duty to future generations, and are we; doing our duty to a grand country, teeming with possibilities, in standing in the same old hole as was dug CO years ago? The Government ot this Dominion should Be one that would develop these industries for the common good, and the adoption of the co-operative principle throughout would give us the skilled la,bor necessary without any fear of labor squabbles, but so long as we are agreeable to allow party cliques to occupy the governing positions so long will our country remain at or close to the million population, and so long will the best we breed and train have to go to outside places to find scope for their abilities. It is easy for anyone to recognise why. And here, again, I might say, the war should teach 11s a lesson: If during a crisis in which our existence is threatened all party differences can be obliterated for the common good, is it not of equal jir more importance that such methods should be done with in the interests of expansion of the country when the crisis is ever? It remains with the masses to say and to act. Will the principle of "my country first," which so many prate about in time of war, obtain in time 'of peace? Will the idea of "I'm all right, d everybody and everything else," which got a rude shock through the war, still exist in, the future in the face of recent happenings? We have eminent thinkers, prominent and popular writers, high dignitaries of the churches, etc., all drawing public attention through their individual channels as to what will be or should he, after the war; but the same old methods of "get on top, no matter whom you push in the mud," is bound to prevail. We point to the cruelty of the Hun in war time in their treatment of women and children, but if to look closely into what the individualistic doetrine has done for women and children in times of peace and years gone by up to the present time by professedly Christian countries there will not be found much of a difference between those and the methods of the Hun, witli the exception, perhaps, that the torture ended suddenly on the part of the latter, while with the others it entailed years of suffering and misery. Is there a possibility that the cruel war now in progress will show to men the need for the actual practice of Christ's precepts instead of the hypocritical actions of the past? Ts there any need to point out that the young generations of the present must be put under a different method of education than has obtained so as to eliminate old aelfah principle

which has ingrained itself into the system of their fathers and tli.e evil effects of which are to he seen in periodical vents per war? What's the use of people professing Christianity yet acting like savages to their own kind in their unholy greed to amass wealth by «uiy and e\ erv kind of means'! Can they expect anything more from their offspring than hypocrisy, seeing they are educated in it? There's a possibility that the war will mean a recasting of thought towards a more equitable system as between man and man and between nation and nation, and we, a a part of the globe that has exceptional advantages for building up a race of people that could occupy a prominent place, could lay the foundation by example in adopting throughout a system of government whereby the basis would be humanity as a whole and not self. There's a possibility, I repeat, but those who follow the Great Teacher will have to be up and doing, and the heart-searching will he severe. It's strange how the word 'patriotism" is twisted to fit peculiar [ phases because war is on, and if it were pointed out to many, who think tlipy ,havc a fair share of the article at the present period, that it is needed jußt as much in times of peace as in that of W'ar the old, old selfish spirit would soon show how much "patriotism" was valued. How much have we advanced in 1900 years?—l am, etc. •TOE B'. SIMPSON'. ■Maketawa, April 9.