CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1917, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

A MISCHIKVOCJg .AGITATION. To tlio Editor. Sir, —Kindly allow mo spaco in your valuable paper to point out to several of your correspondents the amount of liarm they are. doing in airing some of 1 their grievances. For example, the writ- ■ or makes a very strong point of the farmer and Ilia wife working from day- ■ light till dark for a mere living while the civil servant just does his eight hours and so on. Now, Sir, do those fanners ever think what effect their writing lias on boys that might read them? Will a boy with any go in him be> content to slave from early morn til! late at night for a paltry few pounds, when lie can so easily get his £3OO per annum and a free life? Is it any wonder that our lads are dissatisfied with farpi work? Let them (the farmers) ask themselves how many civil servants receive £3OO a year? I suppose it would work out at about 1 per cent. Then what becomes of the other 99? T have known farmers' sons leave their homes for the easy life of tho laborer in town, only to meet with disappointment, and then become extreme labor agitators.. One of your correspondents putls his case very well in advocating that the Education Department acquire a block of land to educate the lads in farm work, while others are as much as telling them that they will be better off working for wages. Again, I read a letter from a farmer showing how it is only possible for a poor man to get on the land by •nationalisation and compensation for im- , provemonts. But wily all this expense when we are.told how much money a watersider or coal miner receives, and not exert himself? For raysolf, I have been through the most of it, and I can give the boys on the farm a little advice, and that is not to be led away by reports of big salaries and nothing to do, for tho average farmer who is not hopelessly in the hands of tbe money-lender is bet- . ter off than any of the men who have to depend on someone else to employ them—l am, etc., > TRUTH. Midhirst, 3/3/17, WORK OF THE Y.M.C.A. To the Editor. Sir, —Your report of last night's meeting concludes with a reference to the question I asked Mr. Smeeton, and Ms answer. I 'know my question was very poorly expressed, and have to thank Mr. Smeeton for Ills ample reply: more than you were able to report. I now hope you will lob me make a little explanation of what I wanted. T read in the British Weekly of March 8 that Lord Derby admitted, hi his communication with the Daily 'News (London) that there was a possibility that tha Government might take over the huts belonging to the Y.M.C.A. and use tliem as wet canteens. The very suggestion of such a thing seems monstrous. Undoubtedly in war time the Government hail the right to commandeer whatever is (necessary for ■the successful prosecution of the war; but a wet canteen is not that " U Y any stretch of the imagination. Moreover, if the liuts are needed for any useful purpose, those who subscribed the cost of setting them up will not at all object. In the case now in view, of using them for the sale of intoxicating drink% all those interested 1 in Y.M.O.A. work will strongly'protest. One leading thought in the minds of all promoters of the plans of the Association is to provide a counter-attraction to the wet canteen, and if Lord Derby's suggestion he carried out it will be a veritable scandal. No one pretends that the wet canteen is any benefit to tho soldiers. It panders to the evil habits of some of the men, and it forms a school where those young men who have been brought up in strict sobriety 'will be taught drinking habits, and thus receive damage that will remain with them long after tho war is over. Our New Zealand Government has very wisely kept the web canteen owt of the military camps in this country, and it behoves' us to watch over the, interests of our men in the matter of drinking temptations at tha front aS carefully as we can. Mr. S'meeton's re- . ply to 'my question was quite satisfactory, and" I hope lie is right in the , opinion that no Government would take ! such a ftep would divert the property of the Y.M.C.A. into a use that it was ! positivelv provided to supplant. If the , public thought that their donations [ would be so used, I fear the support - the 'Association has hitherto received ' would rapidly fall off. With tho confii dence that such will not be tho case I gladly enclose my cheque for tho Solr din's' Comforts Fund, and at the same ' time warn all lovers of sobriety to be , on tho look out. Eetcrnal vigilance is tho price of liberty. Lord Derby was, before the war, opposed to temperance ' reform, and we have no reason for thinking that he has changed his mind.— I I am, etc., GEO. H. MAUNDER. 1 New Plymouth, 5/5/17.