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DEFENCE MATTERS

THE RETURNED SOLDIERS

"WILFUL AND WANTON j WASTE" ]

How long is the staff of highly-paid' oncers going to bo kept going h" asked '■ Mr. (~ Witty (Rjccarton) in the House 1 ot Representatives when Defence mat.: ters were under discussion. "We have' had a whitewashing report whitewashing! the .Minister of Defence and some of! his officers, but I am afraid we will not! have an •opportunity to discuss" that i report., We are entitled to more in-; formation than we have got about the! Defence Department." ' j Mr. Witty added that it was stated! some paris of the report had been cut! out before the report reached the House.! It that had been done it was not a fairwing. He wanted to know what' the j Department had paid for materials and] what had been done with the money; collected from the soldiers for loss of! kit and so forth. Was the Department.; e ?ffi > to ' n ' ocoed wil 'i the i-rection of! 'Aliens lolly," the huge temporary j building now under construction across Whitmore Street in Wellington? Wilful ' and wanton waste had been going on all '< over the country. Millions had been' squandered iby the Defence Department,! and when members protested they weira-i told they were disloyal. Mr. Witty I stated that nothing had been done for 1 the returned soldiers, and that there was! n ° excuse for cutting short the session. ', Ihe Prime Minister said the statement! that nothing had been done for the-re-1 turned soldiers was utterly 'ncorrect A! very great deal had been done for thaj men, and the Government was prepared"] to do a great deal more. If the member did not know that, ho ought to know it. i Very large quantities of land had been: purchased. for the'soldiers at a cost of ; over .£1,000,000. The Government had: endeavoured to provide for all classes of! soldiers in the selection of land. Par-! tially incapacitated men did not wish to' go into the■ backblocks, and other men 1 did not wish to take up improved land.; the Government had placed over 10001 soldier settlers on. the land There was no country in the JEmpifaj that had done as much for the returned soldiers as New Zealand had done. Mr. Massey mentioned what the Government had done in the training of soldiers for new occupations. The repatriation scheme, which would be presented to' the House shortly, would show what the! Government proposed to do for small business men. Quite 25,000 soldiers had! returned already, and half of them had! stated that they did not want any Gov-! eminent assistance in ire-entering civilian! life, the others had been assisted. He .hoped the House would hear no more! ol the inaccurate statement that th?' Government had done.nothing for the! returned soldiers !

Mr. Anstey (Waitaki) referred to a: block of land which had been purchased'! in Canterbury at the price of. £30 per ; acre, when it had been on offer by'the former owner for a long time at .£26 pe» acre; This land was not suitable for; settlement by returned soldiers, and it' had been cut u.p into allotments which- ?«■ nV?, 1 This wns ihe s ° rt of ; sum that the Government was offering l to the returned soldier. In Canterbury'! the -most attractive land to the soldiers > was sheep country, and this was • the I very country.that the Government wouldnot let them have. This land was" being i given to those who already had largo i holdings. ' : Sir James. Allen, replying to the as- 1 6crtion that officers were being kept in' soft billets at high pay, said that the! New Zealand officer was probably the' 1 lowest-paid in the world, and the proba- : bililios were that the rates of pay to! officers would have to be increased;' Ofi those men now engaged in work in this | country, most of them had made sacri-i fiees in order to come into the service.! Among these he mentioned Colonel Tate ! and Colonel Roberts. He would have: little to say in reply to what bad been! said about the report of tie Defence: Expenditure Commission. 4le was Borry', that anyone should call it a "white- \ washing" report. Siftely no'one a "dirty washing" report. .The Depart-! nient had no dirty linen, to bo washed. -.

Mr. M'Cnllum ■ Will you Hay that there I was no portion of Hie-report excised? ! Sir James Allen: "There is a question': on tire order paper about Hint." He went \ on to speak of tho building now being, l elected in Whitmore Street. That build-• iiig was- being erected for economy and! efficiency. The saving in rent wouldj recoup (lie whole cost of the building in fivo or six years. It was. essential that; the pay and records branches of the service should bo brought together, i These two branches would have to run! for three years yet, and after the build-' ing was no longer required for thpm it! would bo of great (service to the Govern-i ment for other purposes.

Referring lo tho camps, the Minister j said that he hoped that Trentham would; be used as a Territorial camp for many_.i years to come. As to the ultimate use! to which Featherston would be put he l could not yet say anything, but he hoped! that it would bo used in conjunction! with the farm of four hand red acres; attached to it as a training centre fori returned soldiers wishing to go on the! land. . i .. - ' ■ !

The following information about thei potato market was given by the Prime: Minister replying to a question in the] House of Representatives yesterday:—; "Inquiries by tho Board of Trade show, that potatoes are quoted at present in J Christchurch at from .£l3 to ,£l3 10s. i f.0.b.5.i., but offerings by growers and] merchants are very small and it •is i doubtful if supplies of old potatoes are! sufficient to last until the uew season's: aro available. At Auckland on November I 1 wholesale prices ranged from .£ll forj small to £16 10s. and .£l7 10s. for good; table; at Tauinarunui the price was iSIGj per ton on the same date- The Board of] Trade, in conjunction with the Muni-| tions and Supplies Department, has ■ been and is doing its best to relieve thei situation by'giving preferential space tor! importations of potatoes from Australia." I

Tho Prime Minister lias promised that; a proposal by Mr. Veitch that a State-j owned steamer service be established on! the Waugauui River shall be referred to] Cabinet tor consideration. j

Tho statement has frequently beonj made that portions of tho Defence Ex-] penditure • Commission's report were! excised by tho Government. The; Minister made the following state- i ment in the House of Represen-j tatives on tho subject:—"Two por-j tions of the .original report were .ex-i cised by tho Commission oh tho advice of j the Solicitor-General as being beyond: the order of reference. Tho report as! submitted to Parliament is the final re-] port of tho Royal Commission." i

The Prime Minister states that the] Government does not consider ■ it neces-1 sary to set up a Special Parliamentary: Committee to consider repatriation prob-! lems, which are at present being dealt; with by u special board of Ministers. ■ j

The Labour Representation Committee , has called for nominations from affiliat-j ed organisations for a candidate to re-i present Labour in the by-election lor: Wellington South, and tho Trades Coun-1 cil has decided to noiuinato Mr. M. J.j Reardon for the preliminary ballot. !

Thero was a savour of humour in the! indignation expressed by a Maori iuem-! ber of the House of Hepre'sentativcs, Mr.j W. Uru, about the treatment meted out] to some of his people recently by the Health authorities. Tho burden, of his complaint was that in the neighbourhood of Christchurch Maoris had not been allowed to travel on the trains' without a, permit. Ho ; understood that thero was some objection to tho holding of but he asked, "Why not bar all Irish-] men from going on the trains? How do] you know that they are not going to a' wake?" The .Minister of Public Health! (Mr. Mussell) paid that the question took! him completely by surprise. No instruc-j tions had been given to interfere in any' way with the travelling of Maoris fori business or other purposes, but tangis ; had been prohibited all over the Doiiiin-. ion. He would take steps immediately! to inquire as to tho action taken by the i District Health Officer in Ohristoliwch, j

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19181129.2.58

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 55, 29 November 1918, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,415

DEFENCE MATTERS Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 55, 29 November 1918, Page 5

DEFENCE MATTERS Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 55, 29 November 1918, Page 5

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