It re-echoes the protest, of which we have already heard something, against married men enlisting and being accepted for service with the Expeditionary Force and leaving those dependent upon them insufficiently provided for.
The circumstances under which recruits are being called for in New Zealand are certainly not such at the present time as to justify any man, whatever his anxiety to serve the Empire, in forgetting the call of his home responsibilities as the bread-winner of a family.
The selection of married men with dependents for service in the ranks at a remuneration of four shillings a day is assuredly to be deprecated when, as is the case at present, unmarried men are available in sufficient numbers.
Plainly, in most such cases, where married men enlist the effect must be to throw the wife and family upon charity. It does not follow that the authorities are to blame for circumstances which make a protest such as that we publish justifiable.
It is more than likely that some of the married men who wish to enter the ranks, when applying for enrolment, conceal the fact that they have marital responsibilities, especially when those responsibilities are of a more urgent kind, and the enrolling officer may thus be deceived.
Circumstances may alter cases, but unquestionably the place of the married man with a wife and young children to support is by the side of those dependent on him, unless, of course, the exigencies of the military situation should be such as to call for a more general enlistment than at present seems to be necessary.
Our correspondent has probably some ground for questioning whether the impulse that leads a young man to disregard so readily - almost, it would seem, grasping at the opportunity to do so - the responsibilities of his home is in many cases a true patriotic feeling.
The greater the sacrifices a man makes for his country the more we honour him, and where it is a case of discerning where the higher duty lies no definite rule can be laid down.
But so far as cases of the kind to which our correspondent refers are concerned the difficulty of determining which call is at present the more urgent should cause no individual to choose wrongly.
• It is apparent that some people who have an aversion to motor car, or motor bicycle traffic, or indeed ordinary cycle traffic on country roads, adopt methods of showing that aversion which are wholly to be condemned.
Quite recently the Portobello road has been rendered dangerous to motorists and cyclists through the scattering about of large-sized wire nails bent at each end in such a manner that a point about an inch in length must remain perpendicular.
Three of these small articles of destruction were picked up by one car yesterday afternoon about 5 o'clock, and prove to be of the same pattern as those freely used in Wellington during strike time.
The attention of the Motor Club has been drawn to the matter, and the police have been informed in the hope that the offenders may be brought to justice.
It may be pointed out that the effect of these articles may be more far-reaching than is anticipated or desired by those spreading them, as they are just as apt to injure horses and cattle as to damage motors or cycles.
- ODT, 1.10.1914.
