WOMEN AND NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 171, 19 July 1907, Page 3

WOMEN AND NATIONAL DEFENCE.

.CIo the•Editor.)

Sir,—ln.a letter under the above.heading in a recent issue it was suggested ! that women ought to do more than they are doing at present to further this object. Surely, Mr Editor, the defence question, of all others,.is the one thing that may safely. be lef tto man. If he cannot look after that without our assistance what, in the name of common sense, can he do? We bring him into the world, and mother him from the time he opens his eyes, until he dies of old age. We wash and , cook and sew and look after him generally all his life. In return, we may surely expect him to provide for the defence of the colony without any dry nursing at our hands. Instead, we are told now that he cannot qualify in this particular unless bright eyes are beaming on him as he practises the goose step, and small hands are waiting to pat him on the back when lie does it nicely. I don't think this is very flattering to the men of New Zealand, and I must say that I have more faith in them than '"Patria" can lay claim to. The grand old pioneer women of the forties and fifties had not much time to worry over such matters, but when the trouble arose and men were needed the strong arms and the willing hearts were there, just as they always have been when it was incumbent on the men of any nation to protect their nearest and dearest. No one would dream of accusing the stolid Dutch vrows of interfering with their menfolk on a subject of this kind, but when it came to fight for their country their husbands and sons gave an account of themselves that aroused the admiration of the whole civilised world, and gained for their generals such a reception in England as has never before been accorded to a vanquished foe. Let the women of New Zealand teach their sons to be men, true men, honourable and brave and just; let them also •encourage them when they have come to years, of discretion, to join the volunteers for two or three years. Then, if they are ever called upon to defend their hearths and homes (the only war, I venture to assert, for which there is any justification whatever), the manhood of New Zealand will not, I feel sure, be found wanting. They will manage to "keep their end up," as their fathers and grandfathers did in the old days. And if some one would gently hint to the autocrats of the Defence De-

partment .that it lies in their power to make volunteering popular, perhaps they might remember that they are dealing with volunteers, not regulars, and drop some of the obnoxious rules and regulations that arc driving many youths and men out of the service. I am, etc., E. GIBSON.