STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144850, 30 November 1915, Page 3

STRATFORD.

FBQM CUE KESIDENT AGENT. November 29.—1 f the Government chooses to face the music, a goodly sum will be raised by way of fines for failure to render returns for incometax. Except by the roughest sort of guess-work, not one in twenty is able to give the information required. It is not merely a matter of obtaining the assistance of an accountant, for the material for constructing a profit and loss account is lacking. It ought not to be so, and it would be of great benefit to farmers if they were to keep full and accurate accounts. Ordinary intelligence and the ability to add up a money column is all the mental equipment necessary. But where accounts have not been kept, the making of the returns now asked for is very difficult, if not impassible. . A summer’s day yesterday deluded us into the belief that the “winter of our discontent” was over, but to-day wo are again “grousing” under opr, umbrellas. Sheepowners are beginning to wonder whether, Tantalus like, they are condemned for ever to see through the rain the wool on the backs of their flocks instead of exchanging it for fat credits at their bankers. But there is hope, for this is show week and fine weather has never yet failed the Stratford A. and P. Association. . Men of the Ninth Reinforcement are in town on leave and, as with the former drafts,, it is very noticeable how great an improvement in physical smartness a couple of months’ training has given the men. We are ■being told that war is Hell, which it is not. Hell means final, irretrievable, unmitigated horror, disaster and firm. War is Purgatory and the improved hearing of our young men after a little training is part of the purging process. That the after-stages cf the purging cess are accompanied by horrors and suffering is true, and the nltnnate good is discernible only by the eye of Faith. But the training is almost wholly beneficial, and, if Great Britain had put aside old prejudices and years ago listened to Lorn Roberts and other far-sighted men, the afte; stages might have .been unnecessary, if, to back up the three M’s, men, money, and monitions, we had the three O’s, orgainetion, order, and obedience, the war would be over, or perhaps would not have commenced. Unfortunately the three O’s have been on the side of the' enemy, and we are learning our lesson slowly, very slowly.