FAMILY CONTRASTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10073, 11 September 1918, Page 7

FAMILY CONTRASTS

WAE BECOEDS, GOOD AND BAD. Contrasting yesterday the case of a farmer appellant, with a number of brothers, with that of other men. in a similar position, Mr J- AV. Poynton, S.M. (chairman of the Second Wellington Military Service Board), remarked upon the verv indifferent spirit in which certain families seemed to regard their war obligations. Some families, he said, were willing to sacrifice everything. but the reservist's family, apparently, would not make any sacrifice at all, though they had been in the country sixty years and had a fairly big stake in it to defend, In one case that came before the board, that oS a family named Murphy, out of nine brothers eight had gone to the front, and the youngest boy. who was under ago, had enlisted and gone into camp. In another case, that of a family named O’Connor, two brothers had gone to the front and been killed, and the board would have let off the third and only surviving son, but the parents wanted him to go, ae ho was very keen. In the case now before the board, it was true that the reservist was the only fit man in the family, but that seemed all the more reason why the others should make an effort to lot him go. In the board’s opinion, it was a bad case of endeavouring not to do their duty, and the appeal would bo dismissed.