A NEW MILITARY BUILDING.

Taihape Daily Times, 9 October 1918, Page 4

A NEW MILITARY BUILDING.

' The decision of the Defence Department to erect new buildings in Wellington for military purposes, estimated to cost £12,000 will not, at first sight anyway, appeal to the gea-

eral taxpayer !as being .warranted at, the present time, and while the peo- j pie have little conception of what the Government's future defence policy is going to consist of. The first thought that strikes the people who raise the money for all purposes is, that .white production is hampered by want of bridges across torrential rivers; by impassable roads, by increasing railway freights and other costs of transit, it is not quite the taing to put up palatial buildings in cities for military purposes above all- others. While there appears to be room for doubting whether the Government has the confidence of the country it savours a little of that quality which we so much detest in our enemies. We admit ww may be working upon very wrong conclusions, but that is the Defence Department's own fault. To suddenly spring upon the people the unheralded fact that £12,000 is. to be spent forthwith on a new building for military use is a little startling, as they have been told that there is not a shilling in the Treasury to spend on productive and much-needed work in tne country. We are not sure that tne Government is not inviting trouble in taking mechanics out of military camps and employing them in the erection of the building. The Government is not in good odour with workers over thenfixing of wages at eleven shillings a day while guaranteeing wheatgrcwers and dealers six shillings and fourpence a bushel for their wheat and giving them a free hand to exploit for as much more as they can get. A decision that might result in bread being such a price that eleven shillings a day could not purchase sufficient to keep a family in health. We contenc that military expenditure of so extraordinary a nature should not bo sprung upon the taxpayer in such a time as the country is passing through. Conditions that may, and are, bringing huge profits to some have alreacy brought hundreds of others to the portals of the bankruptcy court. What sympathy there exists for those unfortunately placed by extraordinary conditions is clearly demonstrated by a public man who whole-heartedly supports the Government with one exception; he urges that the Government 'should do what it likes with the half-a-million bushels of wheat it has imported so long as" it is not allowed to interfere' with' the freedom of wheatgrbwers to exact ail they can' ■above the six'and fourpence a buShei guaranteed. In the same breath this man applauds the Government for fixing the maximum wage for labour at eleven shillings a. day. Surely there must be something wrong in the natures of such men: they cannot have been formed quite on human lines, something humane is so obvibusly i wanting. While huge sums of money ; are being used entirely irrespective of public opinion," and without any effort to explain what necessity has ' suddenly arisen for such expenditure. ' j the widespread and increasing difficuT- • i ty among the masses' tb live is sure • i to result in criticism that inay be war- ■ | ranted or not! ■'•;'"