WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 15 February 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

BIRTI: : M HONOURS. THEIR SIGN 1 PIC AN CES. {Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON,’ Fob. 1L No otic will gu. .ye tlie Hon. James Allen the honour conferred upon him by his Majesty the King. During the early stages of the war the Minister of Defence was the most criticised ' member of the Cabinet, lie was hold personally responsible for the sickness that broke out at Treutham, for the inadequacy of the accommodation, provided for the men. for the “canteen scandal''

in connection wilu the first transports, , . ■» 1 and for everytumg tnat went wrong in the hurried military preparations of two years ago. But since then he has atoned for the inevitable mistakes ot haste and inexperience by evolving a system of administration which, on the whole, is 'working with remarkable smoothness and giving excellent results. One of the honours just announced that is provoking more comment here than the one bestowed on the Minister of Defence is the knighthood given to Mr Justice Denniston, which is generally understood to be a preliminary to Mi HerdmaiUs retirement from the Cabinet and his elevation to the Supreme Court Bench. KECK CITING. Such criticism as remains for the Minister of Defence is chiefly directed against what his critics think his excessive patience with the ballotted men who have failed to conform to the proisions of the Military Service Act. The other day he explained that the delay in bringing these men into camp was due to the necessary machinery being incomplete, but this would seem to imply that his responsible officers again have placed him in a false position. It certainly was unfair, to hurry into camp men who recognised their dut% and were prepared to do it, while those men who chose to ignore the law and the count) y’s call were allowed to go about their work and their play as they pleased. ' The Minister is still appealing to' the patriotism of these men,, and urging them to report themselves to the military authorities without compelling him to apply further pressure, but probably their patriotism would be very materially quickened if a score or two of their number were haled before a court-martial on a charge of desertion. Patience may bo carried to a length at which it ceases to be a virtue. SOLDIERS ’ SETTLEMENT.

The allusion to soldiers’ settlement in the cables from London a clay or two ago has revived the waning interest in this subject, and a member of the House of Eepresentatives who made the North Auckland tour has just put forward the suggestion that the Government should take advantage of the scheme outlined in the message and purchase a million acres of good land on the peninsula beyond Auckland lor occupation by men returning from the war. The district, he points out. is particularly suitable for settlement of this character. Very few of the present .settlors have made costly improvements, having satisfied themselves with cleaning and grassing the land while waiting for the Government to provide roads and bridges and railways, and the price might be fairly based on the present productive value without taking the unearned increment, for which most of the owners are waiting, into account at all. He estimates that £5,000,000 or £0,000,000 ought to purchase the area he has suggested, and that £2,000, 000 or £3,000.000 spent on means of communication would provide homes for .10,000 soldiers at a cost of not more than £BOO apiece. “The cheapest land settlement scheme ever, put forwaul in -New Zealand ’> the comment with which he clinches the matter. THE WATER FRONT.

Whatever may he the ultimate outcome of the trouble ou the waterfront —and no one is dogmatising about the matter just now —the intervention of the Government ought to be welcomed by advocates of State control of the harbours of the Dominion. They can argue with some reason now that it the Government has to step in when private enterprise fails to carry on the necessary business of the countrj b might as well remain in and see that the business of the country is ne\ei interrupted. Hitherto the principal argument against State control of the harbours has been that it would 111111 the State talcing over the liabilities ot the harbour boards, but the war mugiven the country a new conception ot finance, and in those days few people would be greatly alarmed by the 1 teasury taking over the book-keeping f-t* a dozen local bodies that “' 1 • nptii-* That, the reformers contend, u> - change would amount to in tins respect, ami in other directions of course, 1 hey S cc many advantages of. State cent,oh