MEETING WAR TIME DEMANDS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1939, Page 6

MEETING WAR TIME DEMANDS.

TN deciding on the recommendation of the National Council of Primary Production to establish district councils to assist in promoting increased prodnclion, the .Minister of Agriculture, Mr Lee Martin, is taking action that commends itself as wise and timely. Dodies of this kind representing farmers’ and workers’ organisations in the principal farming centres of the Dominion no doubt will be able to do useful work in detail and also to provide better guidance than would otherwise be available in the national organisation and control of primary prodiiction.

This, however, is only one of a number of directions in which n much more methodical organisation of our human and material resources than has yet been attempted appears to be necessary. A fundamental question demanding attention is that of determining the classes and categories of men who should and should not be released for military service. It is stated that “a committee has now been organised to see that men from essential occupations are not drafted for service.’’ What exactly that means is not clear. In point of fact no men are yet being drafted for service, but under the voluntary system there appears to bo little opportunity of determining whether mon may render more useful service- in the Special Force or in industrial and other civil occupations, hi particular, there are complaints that the available labour force in primary industry, already inadequate, is being furl her and unduly weakened.

This problem emphatically demands practical treatment. An orderly system of quotas and categories, with reference to occupations and to individual qualifications, suggests itself, but whether methods of that, kind are feasible in conjunction with voluntary enlistment is extremely doubtful. Tn the national interest and for the sake of an effective war effort, no time should be lost in bringing the whole position under careful review. The Dominion is called upon, not only to organise forces for war service, but to increase its volume of production in both primary and secondary industries. These demands cannot be met in any other way than by cutting out nonessentials —in particular by closing down public works that may quite well bo postponed until a more favourable period —and concentrating available human and materia! resources where they are most needed. A great deal of the organisation needed to these ends evidently has yet to be built up.