CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 28 October 1915, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

CONSCRIPTION

To the Editor

. Sir, —I am afraid "Old Volunteer** is not so old i»« he would have your readers beiieve, and that his chief trouble is an unhoi> fear that he may have to leave his ej>fey town life and put in over-time, without extra pay, in the trenches at Gallipoli or elsewhere. All through liis letter rues the scarcely mduen cnal of tear that the national registration may linish up by making iuin taee Teutonic or Turkish bulkts, a tnmg winch he is extremely anxiWtu avoid. Ine poor man seems to hive an absolutely unreasoning set on farmers and to imagine that they have nice. easy lives and don't want to get their boots and pants dirty in a messy trench; a thing which only '-the poor cnaps who are not capable" of farm work seem to be specially condemned to In my mind's eye I can see "Old Volunteer" leaning with his back againsb tiie bar counter, and with his long shanuy" in one hand, a cigarette sticking to Ins lower lip and his other hand beating the air, violently laying down the law of tj ie right of the individual and the tyranny of the State. Uhat individual, Mr Editor, is my pet aversion. He, to put it vulgarly, "absolutely gives m e the everiasilng pip ") I m afraid our heroic friend does not read his paper very thoroughly, or he would kno.v that thd State (accursed thing) has decided to pay certain pensions, to as great an extent as its legislators think it can afford, to (.Lose who come hack from the heid of battle- in a disabled and broken condition. He alsowants to know whether any who have lost their billeib through being compelled to go to the front, would have billets provided on their return from the battle line, yet at the end of his epistle h e says that a number of "rofr•?f,. <? r "Old Volunteers," which?) will find tneir way to this country and that "farmers and other employers will fall on their hecks, etc., simply because they will want men to work for them " and goes on to say that the O.V.''s 'would take the place of those we have lost. Apparently he still thinks that there will be work about for men able to do it, so why make such a song about JtP Of course I forgot that "that class of work," i.e., milking cows and ploughing land would be too solid for men who have led the strenuous life which "Old Vokmt-eer" leads, as depicted above.

"Old Volunteer" also wants to know who would defend our own shores if nearly all the men capable of fighting go to Europe? I'll tell him who'll do that; it will be the greybeards and tho boys, and away back seated on the summit of Ruapehu, will be an "Old Volunteer" shivering with cold feet, for fear that the veterans and the kids will not be able to keep the enemy back until his natural lifs has run out. ARISTIDES.