RETRENCHMENT

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 66, 10 December 1921, Page 12

RETRENCHMENT

Sir—White the powers that be are devising ways and means of economising I »m greatly surprised to find that there has been no mention of reducing the Defence staff. The public know that t'hcre are a lot of highly-paid officials on the Defence staff and they are not' contributing one iota towards the revenue of the country, and at the same time the rank and file are down to a minimum. It would be interesting to know the annual cost per head of the trainees of tho present administration. Do tho public of New Zealand know t’haTei-... man in the Territorials of 22 years ol ago and over has permission to go «’> the reserve list if they wish to? Ale the. public aware that the Mananad i Mounted Rifles are almost extinct, and the Battalion of Railway Engineers has bron disbanded? Now, Sir. with all these reductions In tho Tank and file, su 1 . it. would be only right to, make a big reduction in the highly-paid and ornamental heads of (he Defence staff. Mhlle we coo the railwaymen and the P. and V reduced and duty put on the necessaries of life by the new tariff, and as Mr. Massey 'ia always advocating more production,* is it not time that tho pre-

sent idle expensive and highly ornamental heads of the Defence staff be reduced, as luxury and economy do not go in double harness? Do you not think that the money at present spent on Defence would be better spent developing the hydro-electric schemes and thereby providing employment that is so sadly needed at present? —I am, etc., NO PASSENGER. [The Government have already announced retrenchments in the Defence staff.] Sir,—l was surprised to read of the great amount spent on manual instruction, and on travelling expenses, as per the protest sent to members of Parliament by tho principal and staff of the Girls’ College. There is certainlj- need for economy in many branches of the education service, but jierhaps the manual instruction in agriculture is the mos- glaring example. There are three instructors in the Wellington district, which is as many as the number of inspectors, how, these ma,uual instructors arc merely doing the work which tho head teachers and secondary assistants are paid to do. lue Minister of Education should [inquire into this matter, and he would find great economy could be practised. Aie the teachers incapable? If so, dismiss them Are these instructors to act as inspectors? 1 believe they havp done so in manv cases. Again, a great deal of the manial instruction would be better left out of the primary schools altogether. Children under Standard VI cannot do their pass subjects if they are hurrl ? d about to centres of cooking, etc. No wonder the children lack thoroughness in the essential subjects such as writing, grammar and arithmetic. Until these manual .subjects are dropped we sha.lt not get anj’ better results, at any ra-e in the primary schools.—l am, E NT