WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1915, Page 3

WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

IHIRKERS. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. - (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 10. The Government lias ' taken action promptly to prevent the departure for foreign parts of further drafts of men of military age anxious to avoid military responsibilities After to-day's Cabinet meeting the Prime Minister announced that regulations had been approved providing that no male person over the age of eighteen years should leave the Dominion without the permission in writing of the Minister for Internal Affairs. Mr. Massey explained that this decision was not to be regarded as foreshadowing conscription, but it was not in the national interest that men of military age should leave the country without adequate and proper reason at the present juncture. ''What will happen in the ease of the man who says that he wants to go abroad for a holiday?" asked yonr correspondent. "He will have to show good reason for taking his holiday at this juncture," replied the Prime Minister. The compilation of the National Register is proceeding smoothly, but observations made, on a visit to the big room where the Government Statistician and his assistants are at work suggest that some weeks are going to elapse be fore the work is completed. A preliminary return may be at the disposal of the Government within the next eight or ten days, unless the authorities think it necessary to wait for the result of efforts to check mistakes and secure the completion of unfinished papers. The Government Statistician is classifying the men of military age into five groups in the apparent order of their availability for military service, and there is a hint that the next step may be in the direction of acquainting each man with his classification. The notification would be a broad hint to the individual who found himself in the first class. But one may say confidently that the Government has come to no decision on the point. Consideration of the recruiting question is being held over until the result of the War Census is known, and in the meantime no more is likely to be heard of the projected visit of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance to London. The heads of the Ministry will not go abroad until the position with regard to recruiting is assured. No appointment has yet been made to the Board of Trade, which is to be set up under the Cost of Living Act of last session. Answering a question upon the subject this evening the Prime Minister said that a veTy large number of applications had been received, but they had not yet come before Cabinet. He expected that a selection would be made during the next week or two—provided that men of the type required for the three salaried positions had applied—and that the Board would then be able to get to work speedily. Undoubtedly there is a feeling locally that the Government has been laggard in this matter. The chief purpose of the Board of Trade is to tackle the cost-of-living problem, and do something in the direction of relieving the consumers from a part of the grievous .burden they are "carrying. But it is obvious that nothing can be done this year now, and probably the Board, which has to investigate and then make recommendations to the Government, will not be in active work for several months yet. The first meeting of the Council of Education will be held in Wellington tomorrow. The new body has to fix the boundaries of the nine education districts into which the Dominion is to be divided, as well as attend to several other matters referred to it by the Minister for Education. It is noticeable that several of the questions to be considered by the Council tend to involve increased expenditure. One may hazard a guess that the money will not be available. The expenditure of the Education Department has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, and it showed an advance of some £75,000 in the first seven months of the current financial year, at a time when the Minister for Finance is threatened with a deficit and iB insisting upon the necessity for economy in the public services. No Minister for Education, least of all such an enthusiast as the Hon. J. A. Hanan, cares to contemplate a reduction of the cost of education, entailing a possible lessening of facilities, but the financial position cannot be disregarded at this time.