DEFENCE EXPENDITURE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16159, 13 March 1918, Page 7

DEFENCE EXPENDITURE.

SITTINGS OF COMMISSION IX DUXEDIX. (pbess association telegram.) DUXEDIX, March 12. Caplain Stevens, group commander in chaiga of South Otago, was the first witness Oerore the Defence Expenditure Commission -to-day. He gave evidence of waste by hiring tvpe.uiiing machines. lie gave as ii'i: illustrat on the payment of £35 represented by the monthly payment of •_.l> lor the' hire of a machine, when a new one could have been purchased for £7 10s or £10. Owing to delay in building a storeroom and annoxo at -Milton the price jumped from £66 to £149 ai.d hire ha'd to be paid temporarily.' The present system of filing training records was far more costly and no more efficient than the old record book. If officers commanding districts were given larger powors or expenditure, delay and waste wou.d be obviated. It appeared' to him that a duplication of work occurred more Jioiiuentlv in offices controlled by the Director of Recruiting and the Government Statistician. If witness s suggestion regarding notifying reservists wore adopted, the country would be saved about £7270 per annum in tele-'M-anh aiul postage charges alone. \\ itncss gave the career of three men who were classed CI and finally classed C 2 without re-examination. Jt the .oirector-Geneml of Medial could thus sweep aside the (indms ot C-j Special lie-examination l.oatcls, sivA expensive boards were scarcely sarv. Captain Stevens expressed the opinion that the training gn en to Territorials in camp could not be Lieutenant Griffon, command uaymaster said the regulations did not cover half the necessary expenditii.e. One had to use discretion about Mich items as fuel, and lure ol horses ror (ho instructional staff. Witness referred to the discrepancy in the pay of staff-sergeants at instructional «ok and liome service men ol the same, rank Maintenance money toi capitation should he administered by .he district instead of being \:au\ into the bank to the credit of the officer commantling. Nik! l>"in£ idle. Lieutenant Skelley. marshal, said he had represented to the Department that by putting a barricade round the docks and the iepair works at a cost of £1/0, the guard could bo reduced.

(SPECIAL To "THE I'EKSS. ') DUNEDIN. March 12. At to-dav's sitting of the Deience Exinditure* Commission, Captain btevens (Group Commander in charge ol South Otago) .said that he had complied with what lie conceived to bo liis dutv in bringing to light suggestions for preventing wasteful expenditure, and he relied on what Sir Robert Anderson had said to Colonel T. . MacDonald in Palmerston North to li'« effect that officers who gave evidence v.-ould not be victimised. He made this remark because he had heard that after another Commission some nme ago a witness was victimised. The chairman said that what was reported in the Press at Palmerston North Avas a condensation-. Colonel Mac Donald did not sav that lie was being persecuted, but that he feared be 7ni<*nt be a marked man, or something of that kind, this arising out of something that a brother officer had said in iniblic. He (the chairman) mentioned then that the Minister was most anxious to get all the available information, and that everything of value should be elicited. The General Officer Commanding had also shown the same anxiety, and under the circumstances it seemed extremely unlikely that nersecution or trouble of any sort should occur to any man who gave evidence. . - The chairman asked witness for particulars of the victimisation he had referred to. Captain Stevens said that the particulars were private, but he had a file giving the history of the case. It was before an Education Commission in 1912. An officer of that Department was called to refute an attack by a higher officer, and as a result ho was removed from his position _ and relegated to a position in which he received £100 a year less. The chairman: Was it suggested that his evidence was false?

Captain Stevens: No. It may have been a coincidence, but if so it was a very unfortunate one.