OUR DUTY.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2729, 25 March 1916, Page 14

OUR DUTY.

AN OLD SETTLER'S OUTSPOKEN OPINIONS. Sir,—l hope and I believe I am The JJouinion's first original subscriber in ttiis district, and therefore ask 6uoh assistance' as you can. givo to-improve on what I say. I'or I cannot express what I luel as a bnsihoss man or woman should. I liavo turned 75 a weok ago, March 14." ,'i'he li'-othor of 1.1 children, aaid thanlc God nearly 50 fine healthy grand-ohildren. It's "God's Country," as 1 only an Irishman could call it, Tim Bracken, God givo him eternal glory for Christ's sake, Amen. I love its very stones, as I once loved dirty DliuEu, as 'some - folk called it. Have I not secu'the sea como into the shops on Lambton Quay, and have 1 not lived to see such splendid buildings erected on tho land reclaimed from it. Therefore, if you are young enough to bs my grandson, you cannot feel as I, do. Hut you can put niy words so much better- than an old woman of 75 years, whoso hands aro shaky, whoso brain fc'eioudy, but whose common senso and heart aro still as active' as. evei. Dont you think, if ono has any feeling oi love for the country we Jive in, a country for whose very existence wo are fightirig, that it is the duty of everyone to como forward .and assist? I*l ic Government, have their hands full, and need every penny they can get to carry us.to success. I'havo lost four nephews, and I have one nephew, ono grandson, and one son-in-law. a married man, leaving a wife and -three children, going aivay with the 10th. One nephew and a griuidson have be-on at the iront for some time, most likely with God, so I have suffered. .But I have never suffered as I have in reading the demands of, the railwaymen for ! extra pay. I havs a soil and son-in-law amongst them.-' - God forbid they are unionists, for if so, I could curse them. It has shocked me beyond all else to think that with the nation fighting for its life, and our brave sons laying down tl'eir lives and making the supremo sacrifices they are doing,' that these railwaymen .can seek to . cause trouble and worry, liero over their selfish ends. Can it bs that these men really think more of their Is. 3d. or 3s. estra. a day than they do of the whole of the British Empire, its rise or fall P Oh, that I was a man 20 years younger I Aro we rearing men who caro nothing for their : country, only for their animal selves. Does it not matter to them whether they are under British rule— the Grand Old Flag, that will wave while there is a God in. Heaven to protect. the- weak —or, under our fouL inhumau enemy <.f the helpless old and 'the helpless young? The high cost of living, is felt and paid by all, and the poor railway men only pay this, as all the others do. I am over 75, tho mother of 11 children, yet 5 a.m. every morning never finuS me in bed! I have to pay the high cost of living as well as other taxes. I pay it gladly, because tho Government 'needs money-to prosecute the war. But I can't afford to go to the picture shows nightly, to travel daily in trams, trains, taxis, and the. thousand and ono little luxuries the poor railwayman: indulges in. I have given freely to the many patriotic movements here, and I have been able, to do eo by reason of my own'efforts.-, I-hate publicity, but I can fattAVjf-iiecessary. My children, who are all grown up, aro helping the Empiro in rea'riug'largo families, and some of their sons at the front. But as, I myself ain in perfect health, and .quite likely to live to be 90, surely I could do somo" personal service, if only to carry hot coup to r the men in. the trenches,; and my life being so nearly over, so, humanely speaking, worthless, might yet savo a few whose names •would never die. Could there be a more glorious death, especially for an old .woman, the eldest of 17, the mother of 11/ a grandmother of 47? And if the Government wants, all I have they can •ha;ve- ; it, for. I-can always earn a crust 'by rockiiig'jTcradle in' the: back-blocks. John Plowman's letter, though satirical, was reaily good, so was the returned trooper's who slapped the face of the unsoxed woman who called him a shirker. But there aro very few letters that appeal to me. The Government sliould be helped more instead _of hatassed. They are bravo, true, wise men. God guide and guard them from all ouJside. influence to be true Britishers, and to listen to'nothing but that wo are fighting for our very existence till after . the --war. And if necessary to win success; I would even havo them hang,'all'agitators.- utitil /it i# over. I trusf'you .to put what I have written better.—!' am, etc., A WOMAN OF 75.

[We. prefer 1 our correspondent's letter a 6 it is. It, plainly is written from tho heart; and carries its own message in its own way.]