DEFENCE EXPENDITURE COMMISSION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 149, 13 March 1918, Page 4

DEFENCE EXPENDITURE COMMISSION

1 . — : —• 'FURTHER EVIDENCE OF WASTE. By Telegraph-Press Association. Uunedin, March 12. Captain Stevens, Group Commander: in charge of South Otago, was the first witness before the Defence Expenditure Commission to-day. He gave evidence as to' waste by the hiring of typewriting machinery, and as an illustration mentioned the payment of £35, represented by -monthly payments of 255.. ea6h for 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 annexe at Milton, the price jumped from £66 to; £149, and hire had to be paid temporarily. The present system of filing training records was far more costly : and no more efficient than the old re'cord book. If officers'commanding districts were given larger powers of expenditure,. delay and waste would be, obviated. It appeared to him that duplication of work occurred more frequently in the offices controlled by tho Director of Recruiting and the Government Statistician. If witness's suggestion regarding notifying reservists, were adopted the country would be saved about £7270 per annum m telegrams and postage alone. Witness gave the career of three men who were classed CI, and finally classed C 2 without re-examination. If the Director-General of Medical, Services could thus sweep aside the finding of C 2 special re-examination boards, such oxpensive- boards were scarcely necessary. ... Concluding, Captain Stevens said ho had complied with, what he conceivcd to bo his duty in bringing tonight suggestions for preventing wasteful expenditure, and he relied on what Sir Robert Anderson had said to Colonel M'Donald at Palmerston North, to tho effect that officers who gave cvidenco: would not bo victimised. He made this remark because he had heard that after another Commission some time ago a witness was victimised. Lieutenant Griffin, command paymaster, said the regulations did. not cover half the necessary expenditure. One had to use discretion about such matters as fuel and the hire of horses for the instructional staff. Lieutenant Skelley, assistant provost marshal, said ho had represented.. to , the Department that by putting a barricade round the docks and repair works at a cost of £170, the guard could be reduced.