KAPONGA SECOND DIVISION LEAGUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1918, Page 3

KAPONGA SECOND DIVISION LEAGUE.

To the Editor. Sir, —It is gratifying to have drawn letters from two of the local executive. I wish to explain at once that in recording what, is current talk that mo-st of the members of tHie executive are ineligible for service. lin no way doubted their willingness to serve. I fe.'l I sure they are, like the rest of us, prepared to do their bit when their turn eon.es, 'but it is a fact, never!heless, that few of them can hope to get past the doctors or through tihe camps, however they may desire to. Again, lat once confess that like many others 1 had been assuming things would never hecome so 'had as to make it necessary to call up men with family responsibilities. For that reason 1 admit I have hitherto taken no active part in the Second Division movement. However. I (hope my Kaponga friends will forgive this remissness and accept my assurance that I will henceforth do what T can to assist them in geting justice done to wives. 2vow I would like to say that the case made out by both Mr. Dagg and Mr. Melville for the Government's parsimonous action is a lamentably weak one. and having read their views I can quite understand how the others were misled. "Don't make it too hot for the fellow that pays," says Mr. Dagg. T say, "Don't make it too hard for the women and children who stay" Who is better able to make the sacrifice of a few pounds a year—the man who stops behind in safety and contentment, or the wife and children of the man fighting 'in the trenches? Have not the wives enough "to put up with, the awful anxiety, the suspense, the misery of waiting, without being harassed by shortage of cash? I have read in the N T ews that if fls is given to wives the total extra, cost to the country will be about a million, and that as separation allowances come out of loan only interest and sinikng fund are paid out of revenue—or £50,000 a year- It represents an extra shilling per year for t!ie country to pay? It is too ridiculous to argue about it. Even if it were "too hot," better that it be provided than that wives and children should suffer, even if beer consumption and racing and picture shows were reduced or wiped out entirely. Tt would be interesting to know what we pay annually for these luxuries. Can't J!ay an extra fifty thousand! Why we can pav the whole lot, the total million, without feeling it Wipe out your pubs and fr/baceo and all the rest of your wasteful tilings rather than that the wives of soldiers should go short. Just a word on a point raised by Mr. Melville, who by the way, falls into the error of statincr that a married soldier receives in pav Os a day. This should be fts. He savs a wife will receive £,?> 3s per week and will not have to clothe and feed her husband. This is said without thought, because it js manifestly fallacious.' My wife now gets a wrvl rloil more than that amount. If I go s«he does not receive my help about the place. I see to the firewood, grow the vegetables and assist in other ways to earn my '''tucker." Mv eompanionshii) and guidance in running the establishment can also be capitalised. When T go to camp, I guarantee that she will not be able to reduce the cost of running the house by one shilling a week. The fact of the matter is that we will have to sell up and she will require to take a smaller and cheaper place, and our two children will not get the education we set out to secure for them. I don't mind that, nor does ray wife, but it ccmes (hard, when we see our neighbors, ineligible for service, making no equal sacrifice but pursuing the even tenor of their ways, and, in some cases, doing better by the absence of men like myself. For Mr. Melville to say that £.l 3s is more than the average wife is getting to-day is mere fatuity, Let him try and secure casual labor at 12s or 13 s a day, and see how he gets onHe forgets that this is war time when all goods have gone up from 30 to 100 per cent, and that wages have increased in proportion, otherwise the worker would he at starvation point. He arrives at his £3 3s a Week by taking from the soldier 3s of bis 5s a day pay. The married man, you see, must part with 3s a day, but the single man can put that amount aside for the rainy day that comes when be returns. The Government acknowledges that a wife is' entitled to Gs a day to keep her alive, but shifts the responsibility on to the «oldier huAand. Tt is a convenient proceeding for the Government but it is of no assistance to the soldier, who has to look ahead. He knows quite well from past experience that he will have to shift for himself when he returns (if he ever does), and that bv reason of the hardship and physical strain 'to which all soldiers are lie will never be able to face life with the same spirit or robustness again, and therefore he feels that he is just as much entitled to put aside a few shillings a week as the single soldier. He has no faith in Government promises as to what it will do for bim when be comes back. He has had some lessons, especially in regard to the niggardly policy of the Financial Assistance Board, to convince him that he must rely only upon himself as regards bis future. I'm glad to learn that 'Mr. Dagg has accepted mv suggestion to call a public meetina of all Second Division reservists in this district, and T can assure him T will do my best to make the meeting a successT am sure competent speakers will be able to put the true position before even the executive of the Kapong.i branch because their case is so overwhelmingly strong.—l am, etc., CLASS C, Kaponga, May 10.

NEWSPAPER SNEERS. To the Editor. Sir, —The Inglcwood Record has a cheap sneer at the unpatriotic (?) demands of the Second Division League. The editor writes as if it would he a crime should any of the wives and families he better off financially than if the bread-winner were at home. Why should they not be better off materially? God knows they suffer enough anxiety and misery without having money troubles. Any man who is compelled to fight and risk his life and future for the profit and safety of those who are unfit should be paid above the wr;ge of an ordinary civilian. In many cases the husband and father will come back broken in health and unfit fo his

previous occupation, and will be thrown on the bounty of a country which lias just been through an expensive war and which will want to economise on the small man as usual. Politicians' promises have nearly always been proved worthless after the need for the promise has passed. That is why the .Second Division League ask for equal pay for all, rather than be dependent on the whims of a Board more or less under political control.—l am, etc., C CLASS, Inglowootl, May 14.