WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 17 August 1916, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

STATE STEAMERS,

MILITARY SERVICE, % __________ (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August It. The Prime Minister has complained that he was looking far ahead when he referred to State-owned 20,000-ton steamships running at twenty knots between New Zealand and Great Britain, He is not planning the establishment of such a service in the imracidate future, and does not propose to acquire th e fleet of the Union Company or any other shipping concern. This statement disposes of the misapprehension that seems to have arisen in London, but one may trust that it does not close the subject. Indeed, when the wa is over and the political truce has ceased to hobble State enterprise, we ought to hear a great deal of Stateshipping, which must have a direct bearing on the future of the Empire. “We people of the British Empire need to got together, ’ ’ writes Mr. Stephen Graham. “We have to make bridges to Canada, Australia, South Africa, 'New Zealand, and, India. We need the Government to institute a State service of steamboats between the colonies and the Motherland,- not try to make them pay, but to make of them public bridges between our far-off lands

and ourselves. It should be possible for a British subject to go anywhere in the .British Empire at a fare of about £l, and pay for meals as wanted according to a tariff. We have' got to make journeys on the sea unimportant and ordinary. We diminished the cost -f postage from a shilling to a penny ■ <-rdcr that there might be a greater

•irculation of personal .opinion and intelligence, and we had a great gain. It is all to your advantage and much more to our advantage, to increase the circulation of the people of our Empire by removing the prohibitive prices hat we have to pay in order to cross gom on? land to another. ’ ’ This ideal

•my be as difficult of realisation, as Mr Hcnniker Heaton’s scheme of • •;iny-a-word inter-imperial cablegrams

--but its attractions cannot be denied. The real key to Imperial federation

may be found in communication and (i ar.Upouf. Gentle Compulsion. Compulsory enlistment under the Military Service Act will not operate in any district that sends its full monthly quota of recruits into camp under the voluntary system, according to the latest statement made on the subicet by the Recruiting Board. Vol-

unteers will continue to be accepted from both divisions of the Expeditionary Force Reserve, comprising all men of military age; but if a district fails to supply its quota and conscription becomes necessary, then men required to cover the shortage will be drawn from the First Division, that is, from the single men. This arrangement follows the line of least resistance, and it ought to convince the opponents of compulsion that the- Government is in no hurry to abandon voluntaryism. The quotas, are assessed on the number of men of military age in each of the military districts, as disclosed by the National Register, and most of the districts have been finding the required number of men, and something over The districts that have shown themselves laggardly can avoid conscription if they choose to make the necessary effort. But the arrangement has one serious disadvantage, since it is not free from the unfairness that characterises the voluntary system in the present crisis. The real shirkers, be they few or many, among the single men without dependents will have another chance to shield themselves behind the patriotism of the men who will make heavy domestic and business sacrifices in order to answer the call for volunteers. The effect ■of the Military Service Act upon volunteering has yet to bo made clear. Members of the Recruiting Board quote the precedent; of President Lincoln’s conscription law at the beginning of the American Civil War, who n the threat of compulsion filled the ranks of the Union armies with volunteers. But recruiting in Wellington City, at any rate, has shown a substantial decline since the Act reached the Statute Book, .and som,. of the recruiting committees are saying that they cannot urge men to volunteer when the Government has power to summon the

various groups in just sequence The Soldiers’ Health,

General Henderson’s statement regarding recent, sickness at the military

camps disposes of many wild rumours. The Director of Medical Services says that out of 20,000 m-en in the training

camps since January 1, 1910, 31 have died—26 from sickness and 5 from accident. Blitting aside th e deaths duo to accident, the mortality rate has been 1.3 per 1,000 men for the year. Two men are suffering from pneumonia in the military hospitals at the present time, and the other cases receiving attention ar e of minor importance. The figures quoted by General Henderson are not negligible, but they ought to

allay a great deal of anxiety aroused by unofficial reports. The mortality rate is very much lower than the average of the British military camps, and it certainly is not higher than the Aus-. tralian rate, though exact figures are hard to secure. It ought to be remembered in this connection that the training period in New Zealand is exceptionally short, consequently the effort must be concentrated. The syllabus of work is not harsh, but it is severe enough to discover quickly any latent weaknesses. A certain amount of danger from infectious disease appears to

b e inevitable in largo camps. Doctors and Friendly Societies

The quarrel between the Friendly Societies and the British Medical Association in Wellington is not ended, and there seems every probability that it will develop into a contest of an important character. The doctors, it will be remembered, demanded that the annual payment by the members of the societies for medical attention should be increased from 15s to 25, and that the list of special payments should bo increased substantially. The societies, faced with additional charges totalling many thousands of pounds yearly, have sought a compromise, and invoked the assistance of the Minister of Internal Affairs, who presided over several conferences of the parties. But a settL - ment has not been attained, and now the societies are paying the doctors’ foes of their members in the ordinary way pending the next development, in the form of an attempt to establin’ “non-union’ ’ doctors in Wellington Struggles of this nature have been seen in many parts of new Zealand during the last twenty y easr > uml there is likelihood now of an important precedent being established in Wellington.