MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1916. THE MARTIN MEMORIAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13523, 6 October 1916, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1916. THE MARTIN MEMORIAL.

The public of I-'almerston have been invited by Ms Worship the Mayor to meet to-night to formulate some plan of permanently commemorating the late Dr Martin '3 services to New Zealand and the Empire. As far as we are aware three schemes have so far been mooted. Ore suggestion is that a special ward should be erected at the hospital. Another proposal is that steps should be taken to bring to fruition Dr Martin's original scheme for the establishment of a Radium Institute more particularly for the treatment of cancer for which a comparatively a large sura of money has been subscribed and handed to trustees for ultimate administration. A third idea is that the best memorial of Dr Martin's association with the Army would be the establishment of a soldiers' institute on a liberal acreage of ground, where the more robust of tho returned men could be taught farming, horticulture, bee-keeping and trades of various kinds, and the permanently injured could be instructed in basket and toy-making, and kindred accomplishments.

1 In conversation with a Palmerston resident last night we learned that he was prepared to subsidise a practical movement on these lines with a donation of £2OOO, and we have heard that a Foxton settler is also prepared to grant a liberal subsidy for a simili'r undertaking. The general idea seems to be that it would be in keeping with the laia Dr Martin's known predilection that the soldiers should take first plac? in any memorial scheme that is evolved.

Prom enquiries we have made it eeems doubtful if any immediately useful purpose could bo served by building another wing on to the existing hospital. The accommodation there is at present ample, and in any case it is doubtful if any auxiliary undertaking woald be considered adequate by a body of general subscribers anxious to cc honour to the dead

hero. As for the Eadiura Institute, that movement has come to a pause because of a natural hesitancy. It is now reluctantly admitted that radium though a beneficial therapeutic agency is not tho panacea for malignant dis- ! eases that its sponsors were originally inclined to anticipate. A Radium Institute, equipped with electrical and other modern appliances would be a valuable adjunct to surgery and would r.o doubt attract patients from near and far, but the cost of upkeep would naturally involve a very considerable unreproductive expenditure. An institute for the training of soldiers in useful and artistic avocations might, on the other hand be made partially self-supporting. The question is one for relegation io an influential committee of investigation, but .thereshould be n'S' dc-'ay so serious as to jeopardise the fulfilment of the commemoration scheme.

STATE SOCIALISTS. Tho Farmers' Union executive, which remained absolutely quiescent at the news that it was proposed to hoist the price of butter to the vicinity of two shillings a pound, and which is opposed to taking the duty off rural commodities in the interests of urban ) communities, has been strongly stirred by the news that the shipping pirates have decided to again bump up the price on wool. It is interesting to note that our usually conservative friends are prepared to go to the length of advocating an extension of State socialism in order to circumvent the 1 exactions of private enterprise! That their proposed panacea is not immediately practicable may indicate that our friends are using the argument as a threat, but its promulgation indicates that the tendency to lean on the State in emergencies is not confined to the radical element of the? community. Certainly the wolfish greed of the shipping corporations is most exasperating, but it is well in keeping with the traditions of private enterprise, which always jbuys in the cheapest and sells,in the dearest market. War is the harvest of monopolists of every breed. It makes the profit-monger fairly ravenous. A well organised State would commandeer all essential services and commodities at war time, and Avould protect the ordinary taxpayer and the wage-earner from all beasts of prey. As the result of war New Zealand_ as a food-producing country is reaping a rich harvest from the soldiers in the? field, the workers in the' factories, and all classes of wage-earners. On the whole these are a long-suffering and patient folk who are content with a fair share of the resultant exploitation. That makes this outcry for State socialism from the representatives of the major beneficiares sound rather hilarious to the journalist, who views the commotion with serene detachment.

FALSE RUMOURS. The Hon. J. Allen (Minister for Defence), interviewed witli regard to the circumstantial rumour in circulation as to the alleged sinking of transports, said, very emphatically, that he deprecated such idle reports in the strongest terms. "There have been (he added) persistent rumours that one of our transports has been sunk. The public must understand that if any such information came to me it would be immediately made public; there is no reason to withhold it. Sad as the news might be, it would be made known. Such rumours as have been circulated are not only idle, they are wicked, and they make thousands of people miserable. There is a rumour that there is something wrong with the Tahiti. She is perfectly safe. Both of the transports that conveyed the 15th Reinforcements have reached their destination safely. I do hope that people who hear these baseless rumours will write to me and tell me who it was that told them. If they do that I will trace the rumour to its source, and see ii I can stop anything of the kind happening in future. 1 trust that the people will carry out what I wish, and that they themselves will stop these baseless rumours, because they know perfectly well that any news of this kind that we get will be communicated to the public. This is all very fine and large, but the fact is that the Minister of Dofence is as much responsible as the rumour-mongers for what. hats occurred. The Defence Minister must know when the transports arrive at their destinations. Why does he keep these facts up his sleeve until they are forced out of him in the-form of indignant repudiu.-on? The Minister and his official subordinates are SO anxious to keep up an air of mystery that they play into the hands ot rumour-mongers. Thoso who send their sons and relatives to the front are entitled to the fullest consideration. They do not get it from either the. Minister of Defence or the redtape automata in charge of the war departments.