Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1915. A WAR CENSUS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8215, 12 August 1915, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1915. A WAR CENSUS.

There appears to be urgent need for the national register which the Government has i decided to take, because if some discrimination is not exercised with regard to recruiting there is likely to be a serious shortage of men able to carry on the primary industries. Fanners are beginning to be apprehensive as to the possibility of gathering the, harvest this season, and a message from Wellington yesterday indicated the probability of a shortage of shearers. The register, which Mr Massey estimates will be completed in about a month's time, should . show, almost exactly, the maximum number of men. still available for military service without seriously crippling the necessary industrial power of the country. It must not be forgotten that the task of continuing the. war is as much an economic as it is a military one, and to continue our present system of recruiting every man who offers may cause a break-down of the wheels of industry—which would be almost as great a disaster as a military defeat. Until the time arrives for the gathering of the harvest and for shearing, it would not bo. possible, under ordinary circumstances, to ascertain whether there was a likelihood oi; a shortage or a sufficiency of labour; but the national register will indicate this, and the Government will thus, be i enabled to stop any further drain

on the men needed ior work on the farms. The position became so acute in Britain a few months ago that many hundreds of .men had to be recalled from the trenches to resume work in the munition factories, and in most parts of England the bulk of the farm work has this season been carried on by women and girls. The zeal of the recruiting officers is to be commended at all times, but at is folly to put all our eggs into ,one basket. An illustration of the need for the exercise of discrimination is given by a correspondent of the London * ' Times,'' who wrote :—" Within the last week the foreman on a farm adjoining mine in PerthI shire, wlio is married and has five children, of which the eldest is eight, has been induced by the recruiting agent and the Government allowances to enlist. It is impossible to replace a man hi such a responsible position under present circumstances except by bribing away another farmer's servant. On" his judgment the ingathering of the crops in proper condition largely depends, as well as other work." His enlistment undoubtedly will mean a reduction in the value of the produce of the farm this year and a reduced area under cultivation next year. I ask what is the good of appeals from the Board of Agriculture to farmers to increase the area of land under cultivation if the recruiting authorities are permitted to act in this way. From a national point of view the want of organisation of which this in-| cident is an illustration is folly* j and if persisted in may be properly described as madness."! There may have been many cases j of a similar kind in New Zealand.; The response from the country | districts has been very satisfactory, though it is possible that in some cases advantage has been taken of the scarcity-of-labour cry to escape military duty. Not only in the rural industries, but, in factories and workshops, is a revelation of man-power needed, and the statistics of the register. I will be awaited with considerable interest.