WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1930, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

(Social Correspondent). REORGANISATION OF DEFENCE FORCE. MINISTER AND CRITICS (Special Correspondent). $ WELLINGTON, December 18. Both the Wellington daily papers 'take the Hon. J. G. Colvbc, the Minj is ter of Defence, severely to task for having dared to “reorganise” the defence force of the Dominion which, it will l>e remembered, received some attention from Parliament during last ' session. The Minister claims that reorganisation of the military side of his department is his purpose. “On the meagre details supplied,” the “Dominion” retorts, “the. process looks more like disorganisation or exI tinetion...So far as can he gathered the whole system of national service 1 has been destroyed... Economy is a plausible plea in these difficult times, but what mail when faced with the need to cut down expenses would begin by ceasing to pay his insurance premiums.” The morning paper evidently misunderstands tile position. Mr Coblie docs not intend to discontinue paying liis insurance premiums, but he is seeking to obtain his covci at a lower rate. Judging from tlm Minister’s statement this presents no insuperable difficulties, i FOUNDATIONS OF DEFENCE.

The evening paper is a lin io more emphatic than its heal oontempciMv “fn retrenchment- and d istrii ’

it says of Mr Cobbc, ‘!:e Ins.madhis mark, hut a Minister of Dofeneshould have a" more positive policy than that of making defence one possible. Towards the close of the session he was induc’d by some I nbour members to promise a statenr'ivr of bis intentions in regard to ibo encouragement of volunteering, hit the session concluded with nothing said, and it may be presumed *-!'■ "*t those intentions have not been fi-rn: ed. He has destroyed the foundation of our defence system. He has no hing else to substitute or sugges".

Here again, the critic lias denoirmed the Minister without fully unden;m.l ing his. intentions. The country * present defence force is on a sma i scale, a heritage of the Great War. mid apparently the object oi the Minister is to obtain at least equal efficiency at a lessened cost. EFF I C l ENC Y MAI NT AI NED.

Mr Cobbc when interviewed on the subject emphasised the fact that the., efficiency of the defence force would be iii .no wav impaired by the changes that were being made. . The talk e' the force being, extinguished lie took as a playful jibe. It was true that seventy or seventy-five of those hitherto employed in the Defence Department had .been transferred from the military to the cHI branch of the service. 'They would not be peremptorily dismissed, as had been put,about: but their salaries would be revised in accordance with the work they would he called upon to perform. The present -salaries' 'were mostly based upon rank with the result that some officers holding comparatively high military rank were receiving, high salaries for the performance of services which an ordinary clerk could easily discharge Under the new arrangement salaries would be paid, as far as possible, according to the amount of work done. WEALTH GO TNG TO WASTE. . Mr A. Leigh Hunt, writing to the “Evening Post”, again calls attention to a vast waste that is going on in this country. “In December, January and February,” he says, “throughout the Dominion cock-foot seed (probably the best quality obtainable anywhere) to the value of not less than £250.000 falls to the ground .unharvested. Despite this deplorable waste the country each year imports inferior cocksfoot seed from Denmark and elsewhere. Tn 1028 457 tons valued at £35,000 was imported. Hero surely i° an opportunity to employ our surplus workers and to ensure a distinct economic gain.” Surely. indued, here R a suggestion those in authority might turn to account. Prohablv there arc

not many open cocksfoot areas offering the industrious worker as much as fourteen shillings a day (to bring bun on a. level with the “unemployment’! toiler) but there are 1 livings to lie made, and a little more, in this wholesome occupation by the Eeairts that ache for independence.