BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 110, 5 November 1915, Page 3

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

•0 PHt EDITOR Sir, —You are certainly,very liberal in the space you give to R.W.W. to wail his opinion of what should be done to grasp the situation created by the war. He says "all that has been done is to raise the Expeditionary Force and the necessary Reinforcements." This, to him, is a detail. "The imposition of some special taxes," to him another detail. "What sacrifices have most of the people of New Zealand made outside those who have given their sons or their husbands, or their lives?" What more does he want than their lives? How many homes can he point to in New Zealand from which one of its members have not gone or are going to the from.? "R.W.W." is one of these pessimists, who, if they had their way, would ruin a country by their pessimism. They cry "Wolf!" ".Wolf!" all the time, and pit and weep, and mourn, and worry themselves and everyone else who lends an ear to their horrible mutterings. They have always" the same old cry of slump, slump, slump. It is always a mystery to jne why these people stop in this country. "R.W.'W." should know that our exports are more than our imports, and likely to be for some time, as we can't get" the goods._ Further, he says that when the war is over nobody will want anything. Did you ever publish such utter nonsense, for if it be true we are all going to starve to death, and he

says it'will be "too dreadful for words." Why not end it now, and'go and drown? Fancy encouraging a state of mind like "B.W.W.'s I don't know anything, but I go as far as to say that there will be no country in the world so well off as this little place, both during and after the war. and I prophecy a decided boom for this country when the war ends. It is quite self-evident we are getting, and have got already, ripping prices for all our produce, and wo will

do so for some time after the war, owing to shortages elsewhere. Suppose we follow "R.W.W.'s" idea right out, and have a funeral procession, stop drinking, smoking, racing, gambling, theatres, picture shows, entertainments of all kinds, no music, no laughter, nothing but gloom, j gloom, gloom—wouldn't it bo lovely? 1 would refer him to the column in Wednesday's Post, under "In the Battle Line," and ask him how a soldier at the front would get on if he started to mourn over the frightful things going on there. As a little island with few inhabitants, we have done extraordinarily well, both in men and money, and we can only keep our pecker up at a time like this by keeping up our spirits to the very highest pitch by the best means available. Of course

"R.W.W." blames the Government; who doesn't blame the Government— this Government or any other Government—at all times? Some people blame the English Government, but I would refer "R.W.W." and folk of his kidney to The Post of Wednesday to an extract from an American journal, headed "Britain's Nothing," stating what the British Government, through its Navy and Army, has done; and if he is not then satisfied, well, he will be better satisfied if he ends matters as far as he is concerned at once. Mr. Editor, we have done well, so have all the colonies, and so has dear old Ensland, and instead of mourning we should rejoice that we have been able, in such a short while, to do so much.—l am, etc.,

JOHN MORGAN. 3rd November, 1915.