CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 36, 2 July 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A LMPOIM'AST )■ :iNT. The point f or the taxpayers of New Zealand to consider is whether our preparations for the despatch of an efficient voluntary expeditionary force is not on an I'Lneccwsarily largo scale. Are we not training too many mien? There is also the further question of whether it would not ibe better policy, without abating the compulsory principle one iota, to reduce tlhe size of the Territorial Force and to save the money for naval defence, giving the recruit the option of joining whichever service he pleaded?—Christchurch Sun.

WHERE CREDIT IS DUE. Indirectly the whole "Reform" chorus of self-praise is a strong panegyric of the. Liberal Party and all it* works. They establish this creed for the "Reformera." The Liberals suggest things and do them almost wholly; the Conservatives follow and do ttie little things remaiii'ng, because experience has shown them .to be necessary. In this way the "Refonr.ers" get credit not only for tho extension, but for the original! principle, which must 'be good if its extension is a thing to boast of.— Oamaru Mail.

A VICIOUS LEVY. It will .be a source of very great satisfaction to public servants lilitroughout the Dominion to know that there is a strong probability of tlhe system oi imposing a levy on members of the service to make good the defalcations of erring brothers being abolished. The

:.'vy, which 'a one of the relics of the good old ''Liberal" Administration', lias neither [logic nor justice to recommend it. It is had enougSn to make a civil servant pay for minor offences of his own, without mailing him specially liable for the serious defalcations of others. There would be as ranch justice in making the roadmen of a County Council pay for the default of a clerk, as there is for innocent public servants to be made to suffer for the guilty. A public servant who is criminally-dis-posed will not be deterred from 'committing an offence because of the levy that may be :nade upon his companions in the service. The idea of making one section of the innocent suffer for the crimes of the guilty is unique in 'Mi> administration of British juqtiee. The losses should, in all fairnei«, be. spread over the whole community.—Wairarapa Age.