IT’S UP TO YOU !

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 52, 13 February 1918, Page 2

IT’S UP TO YOU !

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT.

In the course of a speech during the Silver Bullet campaign at Nelson, Mr. J. S. Evans, S.M., talking to a farmers’ gathering, said, inter alia ? —

Now, the first act I would draw your attention to is that the men who go to the front must have provision made for them if they return maimed, and that provision must be made for the dependents of all who ar© killed or maimed. (Applause). Very well, gentlemen, we will take that fact as admitted. Now who is to provide for them ? A voice : Everybody ! Mr. Evans : Agreed. Everybody should, but how it that to be done ? A voice: Tax.

Mr. Evans: Yes. tax; but there is a limit to taxation, and when the Government has taxed to the limit do you think we have discharged our duty to the men who go to the front 1 In the “Evening Mail” this evening I saxv an advertisement of a business to let with a turnover of £4OOO, the reason given for letting being that the owner was going to the front. This man is sacrificing his prospects as well as risking his life, and there are hundreds like him. Will a Government tax compensate him if he comes back maimed 1 Outside altogether of the Government tax it is. our duty to make some provision for these men. A voice : It is the willing horse every time. Mr. Evans: Yes, but there are two willing horses in this team. It is the willing horse that is going to the front, and the one who stays at home has not pulled himself to his knees yet, and a Government tax will not do it. None of .us have reached the point of sacrifice. You gentlemen, are farmers, and perhaps you think that to-night you hold your lands in fee simple. But you don’t. Some may think they hold a lease in perpetuity, or renewable lease or some other tenure. But you don’t! You may think your sheep are kept in by boundary fences. But they are not! You may think your money is secure in some bank or deposit, or that your bonds are there for safety. But they are not! If the titles to your lands or the securities for your money arc safe in any’ bank- to-night, it is somewhere near the Dogger Bank. Admiral Jellicoe is your “banker,” and Sir David Beattie is the “teller.” Your collateral securities are the 7o’s with which the gallant Frenchmen are holding up the flower of the German Army outside Verdun. Your boundary fences are not the barb-wire fences round y’our runs, but the barb-wire entanglements on the Western line. Your“musterers” are the men w’ho are going to the front, not those w’ho stay’ behind ; and your “muster” is the bayonets behind a hundred miles of battlefront ! That is w’here your securities are to-night gentlemen. And what are you going to do for your “musterers” w’hen they return. All that you stand for to-night; all that you are ; all you hope for in t}ie future ; your homes and your children who play there, are yours to-night because of the men for whom this appeal is made. It is up to you, gentlemen ; and w’hat- are you going to do about it ?