No Time For Conferences

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22125, 20 November 1941, Page 4

No Time For Conferences

THE decision of the Borough Council to send the • Curator and the chairman of the Reserves Committee to the annual conference of New Zealand Park Superintendents at Hastings once again draws attention to the question as to whether or not conferences of any kind should be held during wartime. The argument advanced that much good reSults from personal contacts and exchanges of views will not be contested, but at a time when the very existence of the nation is threatened, and when every citizen is being called on to make sacrifices in order that our cherished mode of life should not perish, it is sheer waste to spend money on conferences, especially of the type under discussion by the council. The truth of the matter is that a majority of the citizens of this country have not yet realised that there is a war on. The recent castigation of the Australian public by General Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Forces in the Middle East, might well be made to apply to the Dominion. “The people are living in a spirit of carnival,” he said, and he was very little wide of the mark. In Christchurch last week hundreds of thousands of pounds passed through the totalisators, and yet many districts failed to reach their allotted quotas in the National Savings campaign. Hundreds of Timaru citizens saw the “Cups” run, but the money ball on the flagpole on the Post Office failed to reach the halfway mark. From the point of view of morale it is desirable that some forms of amusement should be maintained, but not at the expense of the freedom and security of the nation. Mr Churchill’s stirring call to America, “give us the tools and we will finish the job” should be taken to heart by citizens of the Empire as well. We want to win the war; we must win the war, but we will never do it frittering away money by sending experts to conferences to hear other experts tell them how to do their job. It might be argued that the spending of money on conferences has nothing to do with the war effort, but the public have to foot the bill. If the council cannot utilise the money on the improvement of the streets or put it to some better purpose in the town, then it could be put into war bonds and so help to ensure a victory which will retain for the Dominion the parks which it now has, but which will be of no value to anyone once the enemy has control of them.