THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “ Public Service.” MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1942 WOMEN’S LAND SERVICE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3184, 19 October 1942, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “ Public Service.” MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1942 WOMEN’S LAND SERVICE

No tribute was more fully earned than that paid by Mrs A. N. Grigg, M.P., to the womenfolk on the farms of the Dominion. They have indeed been doing “a real job of work,” not for a special occasion, but week in and week out right through long seasons, and it would be difficult to over-value their assistance in maintaining production. Enrolment in the Women’s Land Service’ should logically entitle the daughters of farmers to the same issues of uniform as those given to new recruits, and if the knowledge and experience of these young country women could be made available for the instruction of those who volunteer for farm work the standard of efficiency would be raised rapidly. The provision of Women’s Land Service hutment areas or hostels mentioned by Mrs Grigg, might be possible in certain districts, but would depend large-

ly on the class of farming. On the average dairy-farm the work commences at such an early hour that the worker must be on the spot. At the present time there are no means of conveyance from a central hostel to the scattered farms, and meanwhile the demand from farmers able to provide .accom.modation will absorb all recruits available. But there will be

need for the provision of some social life for these young people, and that is why it was suggested in these columns that possibly the branches of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union, or the Women’s Institutes, would undertake the necessary arrangements.... There are obvious possibilities in the employment mf girls now under the age when they must register for war work. Even if they cannot undertake continuous work at present they should be of assistance over the peak period, and the experience would help to fit them for land work at a later stage. Young people from the towns and cities of the Mother Country have played no unimportant part in harvesting the, record crops there this year. The people of. the Dominion, as a whole do not realise what a struggle is being faced on many farms simply to keep things going. If production is to be maintained, then an increasing share of the labour’ available for national requirements must be detailed for work on the land, and that is what makes the recruiting campaign on which Mrs Grigg and Mrs Dreaver have been engaged a matter of national importance. PROTECTING CHILDREN i When a member of the Supreme Court Bench feels compelled to speak as forcibly as did Mr Justice Blair, when sentencing to the maximum term ! of imprisonment a man found guilty of terrible offences against children, the matter surely cam not be ignored by the Parliament of the land. The present Labour Government removed the punishment that might prove a strong deterrent and that decision should be honestly reviewed in the light of after ' events. If those' who barred a punishment that, to some extent at least, constituted a measure of protection for the children, and possibly for others, will candidly examine the record of crime in the Dominion since then . they will find ample ground for reversing* their decision. Corporal punishment is, and has long been, regarded as a last resort, but there are occasions ' when it should be used and there could be no better purpose than the protection of the innocent. ' The judge has expressed the r opinion that the amendment of 1 the law that abolished corporal - punishment was “a lamentable ? mistake,” and if anyone should seriously question that cpnelus-

ion the report of the case heard before him should be sufficiently convincing that it was a right one. It cannot be said that this form of punishment was. ever misused and if the fear of incurring it protected only one child, or woman, then it served a most worthy purpose. Let Parliament examine the position and squarely face the fact that m this matter it made a serious mistake.