The Star. MONDAY. AUGUST 27, I917. ORGANISATION FOR WAR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 27 August 1917, Page 4

The Star.

MONDAY. AUGUST 27, 1917. ORGANISATION FOR WAR.

Delivered every r*eanng by 6 o'clock In Hawera, Jlanaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltbarn, Mangatoki, Knjonea, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley.

Some superior persons are constantly , telling us ,£hat our Government has grievously failed in its duty to organise the country for war, and they urge that the methods adopted in Britain should be followed here. No definite suggetions are made, because criticism is far easier than constructive work, but an impression is left that in some way our National Government has been . found seriously wanting in its duty. Yet, without being in any way blind to the faults of the Government, we must ' admit that the greater part of this , criticism is mere sound and fury with little behind it. In the first place the task of our Government is entirely different from that which faced MrAsquith and Ml- Lloyd George. In Britain it was necessary to turn the whole industrial energies of the nation in new directions; munition factories had to be built, equipped, and filled with busy workers; shipbuilding had io he dfrooted first to the construction of warships and thea swung rapidly round to merchant veseels j agriculture had ir- bo reorganised and a thousand qthar new tasks undertaken. There we^-e v&st change* to be made in almost every direction, quite apart from the novel problem of raising five million, soldiers and preparing them to take their plaeee in the. battle line. In our own Dominion the problems to be faced are of a totally different nature. Wa have first to enrol about 2000 men every month, and give them their preliminary training; next to raise, either by taxation or loan, at first about £1,000,000 per month, and now nearly twice that sum; and last we have to keep our industries, chiefly agricultural and pastoral, going on with, as little hindrance to production as possible. Any impartial observer must admit that hitherto these duties have been oarried out with absolute success and with comparatively little friction. We have supplied our reinforcements with perfect regularity, first by voluntary enlistment and later by conscription, which has been adopted with hardly a murmur; we have raised a loan of 11 millions, and are now occupied in raising a still larger one, and few complaints have been made about vastly increased taxation; finally our production of wool, meat, and dairy produce has been maintained at a very high level, though, chiefly owing to an unfavorable season, there haa been a falling off in quantity though not in value, and this in spite of the fact that between 80,000 and 90,000 of our most stalwart workers have been taken for military service. If all this good wo*k has been done, and no one can deny that it has, does not the Government deserve some credit? But, urges the objector, admitting all ih&t, what is going to happen to all the farms and private businesses when 'he Second Division of the reserve is -ailed up? Why oes not your Government do son..ething

about this? It should be pointed out that in no country in the world, however well organised, has it been found possible to remove men in large numbers and yet provide substitutes to carry on their businesses as efficiently as if the country were not at war. The Government can do comparatively little in cases of this sort, though it may stand by ready to give such assistance as is possible. The process of reorganising private enterprises to meet the new conditions must be carried out almost entirely by the people themselves, who will do it far more efficiently than it can be done by the Government. The process has been going on around us for the last three years, if we had eyes to see, and will be continued till our men come back to resume their old places. •Every month two thousand "men have gone into camp and two thousand readjustments have been made. Girls have gone into banks and offices and shops to do work formerly done by men, boys and women on farms have taken over men's work, neighbors have given a hand, dry stock has replaced dairy cows, and the changes have been so gradual that the critic does not notice them, but suddenly wakes up and asks what the Government is going to do, when it has already been done without all the expense and friction which generally mark the work of the officials. There is, of course, a limit to the possible readjustments, which can be made as more and more men are taken for the -army, but we have yet to reach that. When the Second Division is called up the work of the Military Service Boards will have to be scrutinised with great care, but it must be remembered that the Boards are

daily gaining experience in their work, and that they are most anxious that essential men shall not be called up wvbhr out due cause. The main thing is that people should not spend their time in carping and cavilling at the Government, but give them support in their very difficult task. The people of the country have done wonders so far by putting their shoulders to the wheel and giving Ministers every assistance. We shall best help to win the war by continuing this course and not looking forward to difficulties which may never arise.