WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 April 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

WAR EXPENDITURE. 'f* MORE CANDID CRITICISm! WELLINGTON, April 29. More very candid critlcilfcn of the administration of the Defence Department was heard by the Defence penditure Commission on Saturday. Two staff Sergeant-Majors from Featherston Camp were the witnesses examined and their evidence went a long way to confirm disagreeable stories that have been flying about the country for months past. One of them said, that the lack of organisation at, the camps made , proper supervision impossible and that slackness was prevalent everywhere. Kit Inspections were scarcely ever held, and shortages were never found till the men were about to leave. Physically unfit men were sent into camp and allowed to hang about for weeks at the expense of the country before .they were discharged. The other SergeantMajor gave instances of young officers who had never had their leg across a saddle being paid considerable sums for horse hire, and of other irregularities suggesting the prevalence of waste and extravagance. The report of the Commission is now being anticipated with very keen interest. PRICE OF GROCERIES*/ The report of the Commonwealth Inter-State Commission on the price of groceries, which is summarised in a cable from Melbourne this morning, is likely to attract more atention in Wellington than in the other towns of the Dominion, simply because the capita! city has suffered more than any other centre from the exploitation that has been going on in this particular line of business since the beginning of the war. But the report discloses good reason for vigilance on the part of consumers everywhere. The Commission has found evidence on the wholesale and manufacturing side of a trade organisation which is developing a rigid exclusiveness and. threatening to harden into a monopoly. It would not take a commission very long to find conclusive evidence here of the existence of an organisation which keeps the prices of groceries higher by a very substantial margin in Wellington than those prevailing in the small inland and coastal towns that draw their supplies through this port. . THE GREY SEAT,. ' " '...'V The official announcement thaiv the Grey seat is vacant 'through .PaOTQk. Charles Webb having failed, “withomji permission of the House of Represe* tatives, to give his attendance in the said Hous,” during th recent session, has created no stir in political circles here. It was bound to come in due course, and though the Labour members of the House did not join in the compact which suspended party strife during the course of the war, the leaders of the other parties have striven as far as possible to give them what benefits they could from the arrangement. In pursuit of this policy Sir Joseph Ward probably will abstain from expressing any opinion, about the second by-election in Grey, but there will be very keen disappoints, ment among the Liberals here if the progresive electors of the constituency cannot find a candidate ready to give whole-hearted support to the-win-the-war efforts of the Empire. In other respects the community would be very tolerant towards a critic of the National Government. CLASS B.

Though the second Division LeagueIn view of the fact that a large bodjr of Class B Reservists have been drawn in the ballot, is re-affirming its demands on behalf of married men, it must not be supposed that thjL.Government is proving unsympathetic in the matter or that a large proportion of the men are disinclined to take up the burden that has fallen upon them. The Defence Department is makinga vigorous effort to secure every physically fit member of the First Division before taking the members of the Second Division into camp and the Military Service Board is terminating leave and reviewing exemptions. Themarried men on their part, speaking generally, are recognising there is urgent need for their services and areaccepting the inevitable with cheery good will. From a military point of view, according to the reports from Trentham and Featherston, the recruits from Class B are going to be equal to the best of those that havegene before them.