WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 22 August 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

V—f THE EFFICIENCY BOARD.

ITS RESIGNATION. (Social. Correspondent.) Aug. 20. r it was very generally Roped that the meeting which took place between, the Ministers and the members of the Efficiency Board on Saturday would re* j Bult in an understanding that would enable the Board to continue the good work it has been doing since its appointment, but it is reported to-day that the members are still dissatisfied ■ with, the Government’s attitude towards their proposals and arc insisting on the acceptance of their resignations. The trouble is not a new one. For months past the chairman of the Board has been protesting against the inaction of Ministers in regard to the various matters on-which it has been advised, and though he and Ms colleagues realised it might be difficult to take effective measures during th i, absence of Mr. Massey and Sir Joesph Ward they are not consent to. see their recommendations he d up imle.Lawely now these gentlemen have returned to the Dominion. At the lime- of writing it looks likely that no satisfactory agreewill be reached and that the country will lose the services of the members of the Board. CANDID CRITICISM. The “Dominion” this morning, after paying a high tribute to the ability and public spirit of the members of the Board, takes the Government severely to task for persisting in the ‘wait and see’ policy that has brought about the present crisis_ “Ministers cannot expect,” it says, “that men of the calibre of the members of the National Efficiency Board are going to waste their time month after month investigating, planning, and organising for the country’s benefit to find in the end a large proportion of their reports and recommendations pigeon-holed or laid aside indefinitely for further consideration or politely rejected by a National Government that treads timidly far in the rear of public opinion. Efficiency, production and the cost of living are closely allied, and in view of difficulties which lie ahead it might have been expected that the Government would have strained every endeavour to retain for the country, the services of the present Efficiency Board. It is the country’s loss, and a serious one, if the Board declines to continue to carry on the work : it’°fiks so ably begun.” This is the feeling being freely expressed in city to-day and perhaps its ex- I pression may induce the Government to make - another effort to retain the services of the Board. RECRUITING i About 15,000 names will be drawn in the tenth ballot to-morrow and after that only about 8,000 men will remain uncalled in the First Division. When the next draft is required the whole of these will be summoned to the colours without the formality of a ballot and then the turn of the Second Divi--1 sion will be in sight. Ministers persist that the idea of reducing the military age to nineteen with the object of further postponing the necessity of calling up members of the Second Division was never entertained by the Cabinet, but it is an open secret that this course was favoured by the military authorities on purely professional grounds, the average lad of nineteen, in their opinion, offering better material for the manufacture of an efficient soldier than the man of more mature years. However, there is no doubt the idea has been definitely abandoned and whether as a result of the loud public

protest against sending ‘ ‘children ” to fight the country’s battles or of the \ Cabinet’s sober judgment docs not mata great deal. The Government’s proposals in rcisplect to the Second Division are expected to make their appearance this week. THE COST OF LIVING. The troubles of the Government do not arise solely out of its inability to accept all the* recommendations of the Efficiency Board or out of its determination to exempt subscriptions te the War Loan from taxation. A matter concerning the working men in Wellington, and apparently the working men in other parts of the country, much more closely than either of those is the persistent rise in the cost of living The man with a small regular wage and the man with a wage of constantly varying dimensions are both in a sore case of as a result of increased prices, and are both encouraged by restless spirits to place the blame for all their troubles at the door of the Government. Quite probably the Government is in some measure reponsible for what is happening. In its desire to conserve the interests of producers as far as possible it has allowed the prices for meat and butter and cheese to soar higher than many of its critics think at all necessary. But Ministers are pointing out that if the prices of these would be only fair to restrict the prices Wk of a hundred other commodities. This would mean a social and commercial revolution which they are not prepared to face in war time.