THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. MONDAY MARCH 17, 1947. First Things First?

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1947, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. MONDAY MARCH 17, 1947. First Things First?

When the dreadful privations to which the people of Britain are being subjected arc set against the ease and comfort enjoyed by the people of New Zealand, there instinctively is presented the question: Can these things be? Do we dream, or are wonders about?

There was a time when people believed a sick person's health would be improved if those near and dear to him were to deprive themselves of pleasure and don garments of gloom. That was absurd.

But what would have been thought of members of a family engaging in hilarity and extravagance during the serious illness of a bread-winner upon whose restoration to health depended continuance of the happy conditions of life they had so far enjoyed? There would naturally have been heard references to “Nero fiddling while Rome burned.” and criticism of the philosophy that “where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to bo wise.” Yet even the least pessimistic or morbid in mental make-up must be forced to analyse the reasons why the people of the Dominion, and the Government which they have elected to power, should seem to set leismo and pleasure on the throne at a time when the bread-winner upon whom the great majority of New Zealanders are almost entirely dependent is in a serious state of health. It is incredible that this should be the case in New Zealand, but indications point strongly in that direction. for the dominating purpose of leaders and people seems to be to put leisure and pleasure in the forefront. If this be not true, it is difficult to understand, for instance, why the Railways Department should have decided to run extra passenger expresses during the approaching Easter season when the country is suffering a coal shortage which is seriously handicapping industry and domestic life.

! The coal required for the extra j trains at Easter is to be obtained by I cutting out some goods trains which, presumably, would have been performing a national service, and therefore contributing to the assistance the Dominion should be extending to Britain. If, times were normal, and the i world running smoothly, additional | railway facilities at Easter would be I praiseworthy, but how can such polj icy be justified when power and heat | conditions in the Dominion call for | the conservation of every ton of coal j for essential purposes? j However, the Government’s desire I to give the people ever-increasing

facilities for leisure and pleasure, irrespective of whether these things will help or hinder the prosperity of the country, has probably moved it to take a further risk it would otherwise have avoided. It is, however, symptomatic of a course which, however much it may please a large section of the people, is nevertheless calculated to weaken that spirit of enterprise and independence which has been tho lifeblood of the nation.

So far as the general attitude of New Zealanders to Great Britain’s crisis is concerned, the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in Great Britain, Sir Patrick Duff, made some pertinent remarks at Lower Hutt on Saturday.

They warrant more than cursory attention.

Sir Patrick said people were not to display a curious detachment in their sympathy for Britain and aloofness in their interest, as if they were only spectators watching a thrilling play from a comfortable seat, but. if they only knew it, they were watching something which most intimately concerned themselves.

"Britain.” Sir Patrick continued, "is the biggest single customer of no less than 31 other nations. If Britain. with her colossal market, is not in a strong purchasing position, all hope of full employment disappears for 31 nations as well as herself. “New Zealand’s economy is vitally interwoven with Britain's.” That this is not an exaggerated statement will be realised when it is recalled that in the three years before the war. apart from what was consumed in the Dominion. Britain bought the whole surplus of New Zealand’s mutton, lamb and cheese, 97 per cent of the butter and ,58 per cent of the wool. These are arresting figures. "So. if you have time,” as Sir Patrick Duff said with some irony as well os appeal, "you might think occasionally of those kinsmen overseas waiting so patiently and with so much sense of sacrifice and mission; of the vital part they play in underpinning the entire basis of your peace and your prosperity; and of the direct benefits of freedom and security to which their toil and their sacrifice help to spread throughout the rest cf the world.”

Need more be said to sensible people who look into the future. To those in New Zealand who subscribe to the "Eat. drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" philosophy, even this much is perhaps more than sufficient. But who knows?