As it took a bit of scraping to get enough single men for our first force, and men are still wanted for reinforcements to that body, I am afraid we will have a hard struggle to raise another contingent, if only single men are taken.
Now, if single men will not volunteer, then the married men will have to step in and set them an example.
My opinion is that at a time like this, when the fate of the British Empire is at stake the State should levy a special war tax to make provision for the families of married men, keeping back what pay they would receive while on active service.
If this were done, I for one would volunteer to go to the front and fight for Great Britain and her Allies. There are hundreds of married men who would volunteer for this war if provision were made for those dependent on them.
Surely this would not be too much to ask the State to do for men who are willing to fight the Empire's battles. Some splendid soldiers could be got from the ranks of married men from 25 to 40 years of age.
Either what I suggest will have to be done or else there must be provisional conscription till the end of the war. I know a number of men under 40 years of age who would volunteer for this war if it were not for their families.
Being working men, they are not in a position to make provision for them. Another thing is that married men from 35 to 40 years of age would have a steadying effect among our young fellows, and a second contingent of half-and-half would make a splendid fighting force.- I am, etc., Married Man.
• Taupo's well-known Native fisherman Ngamotu Wiremu, whose records in hooking the wily trout have in the past occasioned no little envy on the part of his pakeha friends, caught 52 rainbows, weighing 287lb, on the opening day of the fishing season.
• Reference was made by the Official Assignee at Auckland the other day to rumours that a lot of trouble which a country bankrupt (a coachbuilder) had got himself into was due to a fondness for tennis.
Bankrupt: ''I have played a good deal of tennis, but have never neglected my business on that account. There was no work in the shop. I played in view of the shop. I was easily available if anybody wanted me. There was a boy in the shop to tell me if people came in.''
Bankrupt stated that he had a fondness for tennis. Bankrupt: ''I employed a man at 1s 6d an hour, in addition to the apprentice, whom he took over from the man who previously owned the business.''
One of those present at the meeting said that to pay a man 12s a day in order to be able to play tennis was more than a joke.
It was decided that the estate, which showed a deficiency of 173, be placed in the hands of the Official Assignee to administer, and the creditors recommended that the conduct of the bankrupt be specially investigated.
• A Press Association telegram from Gore states that three local clergymen arranged to address an open-air meeting in the Main street on Saturday evening on the temperance question, but the effort was a failure, owing to the hostility shown by a small section of the large crowd present.
The first two speakers were interrupted in a most insulting manner. The speakers took this in good part, despite the fact that eggs were thrown at them. The third clergyman closed the proceedings by leading in the singing of the National Anthem.
- ODT, 17.11.1914.
