Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 22 February 1940, Page 4

Readers Write

LABOUR AND RECRUITING.

Public attention should be drawn to the remarkable fact that notwithstanding the declared policy of the

Labour Government in regard to voluntary recruiting, and its strong dislike

to compulsory military service, members of Parliament and representatives of labour unions are conspicuous by their absence in the present recruiting campaign.

It looks to me as if supporters of the National Party are the only people who are actively assisting the Government in its recruiting drive. Are the rank and file of the Labour Party opposed to assisting the Prime Minister in his “Clarion Call” and the British Empire, or, as some people delight in calling it, “The British Commonwealth,” or is it that they are nervous of disturbing - the political feelings of the Communists and others holding similar views? What assistance are Labour members of Parliament giving in the recruiting campaign, seeing they are opposed to compulsory military service? It makes one wonder, had the present Government been ih Opposition today, what its attitude would be towards helping the British Empire to win the war. I recall only too well that some prominent members of the present Government were not overkeen to serve New Zealand and the Empire in the last War. I would ask, why is it that labour unions are not serving on the local recruiting committees in support of the appeal of the Prime Minister? There appears to be some remarkable undercurrent somewhere that requires to see the light of day. There appears to be no doubt whatever where the Nationalists stand in the present struggle. They qj'e actively supporting the Prime Minister, notwithstanding that probably they unanimously favour compulsory military service as the only just measure. Surely it is the duty of every Labour member of Parliament to associate himself actively with the policy of Government in present recruiting campaign. They seem to show great activity in other policy matters of far less importance in the present crisis. -“EX-SOLDIER.”

Having read with interest your leader upon the proposal being put forward by the engineer to the Wha-

HARBOUR BIRD SANCTUARY.

ngarei Harbour Board, Mr W. M. Fraser, that the

whole of the Whangarei harbour be declared a bird sanctuary, I wish to express an opinion upon the matter from the point of view of the sportsman. Many keen sportsmen of my acquaintance I have found to be very quick to observe and appreciate all those things which go to make up the great out-of-doors. These same gentlemen, I can assure you, are not lacking where the observance of bird life, in all its natural forms, is to be found. Not by a long sight, does all the pleasure of the sportsman come from the actual bagging of birds; we have those finer instincts just the same as those people known as naturalists and bird lovers, and I trust that your readers will not look upon a sportsman as just a heartless killer of beautiful birds, for this is very rarely the case. To spend a weekend on the western shores of the harbour in pursuit of the wily godwit is indeed a pleasure which a number of local shooters look forward to each year. These occasions are not merely the actual shooting of godwit, which, I might say, afford the most difficult type of shooting possible, being extremely wary, and probably one of the fastest birds known, but gives an opportunity to indulge in fishing, swimming, and, if you so care, the gathering of pipis. Now, as we have already had the season on these birds cut down from three months to a paltry fortnight, I would suggest that this fact be taken into consideration at the forthcoming conference of the Harbour Board and Acclimatisation Society, with a view to our retaining at least this one privilege for just two weeks in each year.

Furthei'more, this type of shooting could not possibly be a menace to boating, as it is always done with the shotgun on the wide open expanses of mud banks on the western shores, i and, as most people are aware, a shotgun is harmless at, say, 300 yards. If this privilege can "be retained for the fortnight only in each February, I would offer the following suggestion:— That this shooting be restricted to an area on the western side only of an imaginary straight line drawn from mangrove point on the south side of the entrance to Skull Creek, to the eastern end of Limestone Island, and thence either to Kioreroa wharf or Tapu Point. This, by the way, would cover all those tidal creeks in which the Ac-1 climatisation Society is interested, owing to the duck shooting which can be obtained there, in the future, for a fortnight only also, this, of course, being in May of each year. Taking everything into consideration, I feel sure that the above is a most reasonable suggestion, and one with which no fair-minded person could possibly object. Also, the boundaries I have mentioned would be very suitable, as they would present no possible chance of misunderstanding, as they represent almost a direct line. Trusting, sir, that this view will be placed before the conference.—D. P NORTH.