FULL EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1941, Page 4

FULL EFFORT

DEMANDED IN THE WAR NO REASON FOR COMPLACENCY. GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S CALL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) • WELLINGTON, This Day. "The recent news must not tempt us to sit back and hope that the Russians will do our work for us,” said the Go-vernor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, opening the annual conference of the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand in Wellington yesterday. ‘'The fact that Germany is involved along the whole length of her eastern front is no reason for complacency, but should spur us on to do more and hit harder even than before wherever we can.

"These are momentous times, everything wc hold sacred is in danger. Our very existence as a free people is threatened. "This struggle will be arduous, and it may be long, and it certainly demands that every individual shall play his part to the full. “If each one of us makes any sacrifice which he is called upon to make and makes it willingly—we will prevail and exterminate the evil things we are fighting. On that victory depends not only our own happiness, but that of our children and their children too.

"It is the great strength of a free people that they can serve their country with a wholehearted determination which no dictator can ever force from his subjects. “Our cause is just. The quality of our resolution is high. We have an opportunity for service and co-opera-tion now which has been given to few. We must prove ourselves worthy of our heritage. “If any individuals or any sections of the community feel that they have been called upon to make heavier or costlier sacrifices than their neighbours, that is no cause for complaint, but rather for pride. “We have only to remember the gallant lads —your own sons and brothers —who have made the supreme sacrifice in Greece and in Crete, to realise this. “Farming and loyalty have always gone together. It is natural that this should be so. There is no good farmer who does not love the land he works on.

"The farmers of New Zealand have answered the Empire's call magnificently, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do their fair share, and more than their fair share, if need be. It is for you to decide what that share is, both individually and collectively. at such conferences as this.” Welcoming the Governor-General, the president of the society, Mr L. J. Wild, said that the society’s object was to make for the betterment of country life, on which not only the economic prosperity of the country but also the happiness and welfare of the people, in the deepest sense, depended.