WELLINGTON GOSSIP

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1915, Page 8

WELLINGTON GOSSIP

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Oi' EDUCATION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 15, The appointment of Mr. John Caughley to the office of Assistant-Director of Education is of considerable importance in its bearing upon the desire of the present Minister for Education to im. prove the primary system. The Hon. J. A. lianan indicated some time ago that lie wanted the new Assistant-Director (1) to have a special knowledge, of primary education, and (2) to have fifteen or twenty years of working life before him, so that he might be able to become Director in his turn, and so secure continuity of policy. The appointment was in the hands of the Pnblie Service Commissioner, and indications have pointed to something like a difference of opinion between the Minister and the Commissioner regarding the selection of a suitable man. 'Rules of seniority and so forth are apt to loom large on these occasions. But Mr. Caughley has been appointed, straight from one of the biggest primary schools in the Dominion, and it will be his business now to set about the practical application of some of the schemes that the Minister has been discussing. The first of these schemes is the creation of a Dominion system of classification for teachers.

PROPOSED BOARD OF TRADE. The establishment of the Board of Trade authorised by the Cost of Living Act of last session is still delayed", though the three salaried positions were advertised three months ago and the applications have been in the hands of the Minister for Industries and Commerce (Right Hon. W. T*. Massey) for weeks past. Tt will be remembered that the Minister was to be the President of the Board, and there were to be three salaried members, paid £IOOO a year, £OOO a year, arid £6OO a year respectively. The Board was to be empowered: To investigate and report to the Governor upon any case in which it is alleged that there has been an infringement of the provisions of the Commercial Trusts Act, 1910. (b) To inquire into and report to the Governor upon matters affecting the cost of living, or upon any other question referred to it by the Governor relating to the supply, demand or price of commodities. (c) To inquire into and report to the Jovernor upon any complaint that the price of any class of goods is unreasonably high. No official explanation of the delay in putting the essential clauses 0 f the Cost of Living Act into operation has been offered, and it is not easy to understand why no progress has been made with a scheme from which the country was led to expect a great deal. If the right sort of men are to be found among the applicants, some 200 in number, then obviously the proper course would be to make a further effort to secure suitable members for the Board of Trade.

"FOLLOW THE DRUM." The details of tne new recruiting scheme are to be announced early next week. The scheme is already in existence, but it has not oome before Cabinet •in a final form, and I understand that one or two important points have still to be settled. The Defence authorities, in planning their new recruiting campaign, have been guided to a very large extent by the Irish system of enlistment, which has been brilliantly successful in practice. The local authorities in Ireland have been used to ensure that a personal appeal shall be made to every man of military age who is capable of bearing arms. The work will be simplified in this country by the fact that the National Register provides a complete list of the men, classified according to their dependents. There will be no element of compulsion about the new svstem, but one may predict that within the next few months every single man without dependents will have a definite assurance that he is wanted and an opportunity to say whether or not he is prepared to "follow the drum" in the hour of his country's need. If the scheme should fail, the next step will be to conscription. But Ministers do not think that it will fail.