WHAT NEW ZEALAND WANTS

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 43

WHAT NEW ZEALAND WANTS

THE DUTY OF THE STATE. A patriotic demonstration and jumble salein aid of the fund to procure comforts for wounded New Zea- . landers at the front, and of the Belgian relief fund, was held in His Majesty's Theatre, Dunedin, on Thursday night of last week, as the result of the efforts of Miss Bessie Hume. There was a moderate attendance, and an excellent and varied programme made the evening a thorough success, while the efforts of many energetic collectors and vendors rendered it of considerable benefit to the funds which it was intended to augment. Among the speakers was the' Very Rev. Father Coffey, Adm., who spoke in part as follows: We in New Zealand considered that we had been making sacrifices, but yet our country was prosperous, and everything was going on as though no war was taking place. We were now slowly realising what a war would mean if it were being waged in our country, and we were bound to make all the sacrifices we could for the furtherance of the cause of the Allies. As for our own New Zealand soldiers, those who came back wounded deserved our greatest care and sympathy. He did not think that we were yet doing our share towards these men who were going to the front. He would cite one instance. He had a case in his mind of a man who went to tho front throwing up a situation worth £3 10s. a week to do so. His employers promised to keep his situation open for six months and to pay his wife £1 a week for that period, stating that at" the end of six months they would consider the situation anew. At the end of six months the £1 a week payment was stopped. This woman had Is a day from her husband —practically ail of his pay, —but even with this the result was that she had to go and earn her bread in Dunedin. We had not touched the very fringe of what we could do, and it was a shame. ' The war has now been going on for months,' continued Father Coffey, ' and during all that time the Government of the country has never yet met together. It has allowed different associations to come to its rescue. What is its duty ? Was it not its duty to come together at the beginning of the war, and, if necessary, get the authority to equip the men and see that those dependent on them at home received the care necessary for them, and that they were in no worse a. position than when the breadwinner was in New Zealand earning his weekly waire? "(Applause.) I think there is no doubt whatever as to the duty of the leaders of the country in the position they were in. Therefore, I take it that I am not transgressing the privilege given me to-night in raising my voice against such action on the. part of those who should be the leaders of the people. ' There is another matter,' continued Father Coffey. ' This war has brought home to us one fact, and that is that it is of no use to rely on past glory and past victory. If we are going to keep the flag flying and continue to be a progressive nation we will all have to do a little more, and our individual citizens will have to do a little more. We must protect, preserve, and increase the population. It is realised that it is men who are going to win, and not broad fields and empty paddocks. Sooner or later, if the country is not populated, and ploughed fields are not occupied by men instead of sheep and cattle and bullocks, our nation will go down in spite of past honor and glory. Our people must keep the cradles filled, and the leaders of the nation at Home must not allow that waste to go on that has continued for the last 50 yearsthat sending of over 100,000 people a year to a foreign country instead of keeping them under our own flag. (Applause.) We have to-day in America something over 20,000,000 of people who should be under the English flag, arid could have been there if our leaders had done their duty. Only last week we were told by a representative man that every adult male in. the country was worth at least £3OO to

- > ' ■ i the country. Now, if. we take £ls or £l7 as the amount necessary to pay the passage of a man from the Old Country to Australia and New Zealand, where % there is, plenty of room, then, for that £ls or £l7 we have an asset of over £3OO for the country. But instead of spending this £ls or £l7, we'allow these people to go under a foreign flag, where, in the course ".of events, they bear us little sympathy and are willing to give us little help. ' It is our own fault,' Father Coffey continued. ' Let us therefore look after ourselves, look to our own, help one another, join one another, and increase and multiply as God has commanded, and if we do that, - although we are at present going through the throes of the war, still we will come triumphantly through, and our nation will go ahead.. Let us see that when our men come home they shall be received kindly. Let us do our best to assist and help their kith and kin who are sorrowing at the present; for although there may be triumph and "glory for the men at the front, yet, in their homes and around their hearths, thoughts of doubt and anxiety fill the minds of their mothers and sisters and. sweethearts. Let us hone that they will come back, and if they do, let us not allow them to - rely on charity, or be buried in paupers' graves. I am sure that the nation is profoundly stirred, and that every man, if lie cannot go to the front himself, will do his duty for those who have gone, realising, if for no other reason, that by so doing he is paying an insurance policy on his own life, property, and freedom.' (Loud applause.)