NATIONAL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue XC, 7 October 1915, Page 8

NATIONAL SERVICE

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER (Per Favour of The Evening Post.) Dear Mr. Massey, — There are, I feel sure, many thousands of people in New Zealand who will be grievously disappointed when they come to realise that the Act providing for the compilation of a National Register contains no provision empowering the Government, in case of necessity, to call up the requisite number of men, and that without such enactment the Government is powerless. It is not at all unlikely that in consequence of the absence ot such provisions the Act may prove to be 4 a lutile measure not worth the great expense it must cause ; and hi that case one can imagine the disappointment, and even disgust, of the youthful heroes at the front, and of their relatives and friends. It is because I feel this so strongly that I address this appeal to you as the head of the Government responsible for the defence of the country. Within the last few days I have put to quite a number of people, including several members of Parliament, the query why the Government does not face the question, and in almost every instance the answer I got was that they haven't the pluck. Now, if the Ministry was a mere party Government one could appreciate such an attitude, but with a National Government in power it is difficult even to understand it, and I refuse to believe that this is the true explanation. In discussing the Registration Bill a short time ago, ydu used words to the effect that you did not favour the principle of compulsion for service abroad on behalf of the' Empire; but that in case of the number of men obtainable under the voluntary recruiting system proving inadequate you would agree to a temporary adoption of compulsion. I venture to suggest that such an attitude betrays a serious misconception on your part as to the real objections to the present system, for it implies that the idea of compulsion should not be entertained until the present system has proved a failure. This means that the so-called voluntary system is a good thing in itself, which must at all costs be saved from the least encroachment of the idea of obligation ; and that compulsion must be regarded as a last resort. So far from the existing system being a good on-e, it is open to the most 6erious possible objections — it is not only haphazard, and consequently ineffective, but it is unjust and unwise. No system intended for immediate application for the defence of the country in the very crisis of its fat& can be called effective, or even rational, unless it is such as to place the Government "in a position to call out the number of men it wants as and when it wants them, knd to call them out in the right order — the younger before the older, the unmarried before the married, the men whose greatest value is as soldiers in .preference to those who can contribute to the successful conduct of the war in a civilian capacity." If the Government takes the precautions to obtain the necessary powers, it will, on the completion of the National Register, be in a position to apply such a system ; but otherwise it may ha.ye to put up with the present system, with all its injustice and anomalies, until* Parliament is summoned to do what could and should be done now. — I am, etc., J. MACGREGOR. Wellington, 6th October. MINING NEWS i «. WiAITANGI. The secretary Waitangi Consolidated reports that during the past week work has been in progress in No. 2 and No. 3 levels. In the western section in No. 3 level above the intermediate, the ore broken out looks well, showing good minerals, and a few colours of free gold have been seen. 'In No. 2 level the leading stope west of No. 2 crosscut -was driven a further distance of 5 feet and 10 feet east of No. 2 crosscut. Between No. 2 and No. 3 crosscuts the drive has been widened out, and at one point struck the hanging wall, making the total width of the reef at this point 25 feet from wall to wall. The ore is all of fair grade. Timbering is still in pro-, gress in the drive. No. 5 crosscut was driven a further distance of 4 feet, making a total distance of 10 feet; the last 4 feet, is mixed with quartz and country rock. Work in the intermediate level east and west of No. 2 rise is still in progress. There is no change in the appearance of the ore since my last report.