CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1917, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

REAI/ SACRIFICE. The claiming of exemption is regarded by many in official positions as f. very little thing, whereas the claiming of exemption is the throwing upon others of a personal duty and can only be justified if the war-strength of the State would be definitely weakened by the going into camp of the individual for whom exemption is claimed (comments the Auckland Herald). We have had recently certain exemption claims which .suggest that the Acting-Premier should ''comb" the public services and that the Military Service Boards should reconsider every exemption of which the recipient directly or indirectly draws his salary from the public. For how can we ex'pect private individuals to have a sense of the gravity of the situation when departmental chiefs and semi-public authorities are plainly indifferent? In one district exemption was actually asked for a professor of Latin, a claim which would be humorous if it were not so tragical a misconception. In another district tho Commissioner of Taxes not only asked but actually obtained exemption for a First Division reservist who was asserted to he necessary for explaining to the staff the mysteries of the work. The Agricultural Department actually claimSi! ttot a First Division reservist, care-

taker at a quarantine station, could not hi; spared. There are other state departments in which able-bodied young men have been discouraged from enlistment while tin. .Railway Department has had to he pilloried in order to adapt ilscif in war conditions. .Sacrifice is demanded from all and the personal sacrifice lias been nobly oll'eml by tens o* thousands of gallant men and bv tens of thousands of loyal and devoted families. The time has conic to do less or more—according as we view it —by making economies, submitting to inconveniences, accenting discomfort, oilVvtinif suitab'e leui'ganisiitions, in order that, the men may be forthcoming. We must fill the reinforcements whatever happens. We must see, that the primary industries, of which agriculture is the chief, are not. si ripped. To do this until the end of the war demands untilltorinif duty-do-ing, in v..;ifh those, who represent government and authority should willingly set the example.