THE DEFENCE BILL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 688, 13 December 1909, Page 7

THE DEFENCE BILL.

:>.;,;;,; two ■ contentions clauses..-:v> '..'■'iccotd|nß;-i° Fisher;' Mil , , there'-are; two -matters in the Defence Bil whi6li aro bound to be ' keenly <: debated. Thi ; fitst ;■ is'. Clause vise,' which'v provides -that •al arms,;!clothes, and; appointments' being public ■property,;: or..,tho.;.property/of>a corps, shal be : taken > over %: the Government, as fron a date to be fixed; A difficnlty which :is no metbytho-Billis (he. Rays) that whilst'thos. corps whioh are, heavily, in debt—in som cases V through': • mismanagement—would haV nothinßt.i lose, there -are many- corps, am eepedally naval ■ corps, whose assets swere buil up yefy largely: by. contributions andmonthl' lories .on .the members. It is evident, there fore, that those . corps' which had been effi ciently. , administered, and: whose: resources hav been carefully looked; after, willrnow find tha they, are .in as bad a position as if thoy hm bungled their finances for many. years, am were-up ■'to their, ears ; in: debt.,"The.othe "matter-,which, he. avers is bound to excit coneideraWe debate is that section which re vokeg the power of the corps to elect its owi officers; and brinfc into, force.a'system: of at pointmenb by selection. He points, out, tha Mr. :M"Nab -endeavoured to introduce'the pre posed method into his > Bill of .two years. &m but -the hostility: evinced'.'• towards , it in th .-House'-compelled-,him:• to droD- the pronosal Of course, in connection withthe.new-Bill, th conditions are, , he says, somewhat altered, as i isaicomrmlsory training measure,- but, nevot theless, the point is bound to- evoto coasiddi able,.discuEsion..:.';..'.-.'./ '.' .. r .