NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1916, Page 3

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

COST OP LIVING QUESTION (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, March 20. "The rise in the coat'of living, largely consequent on the increased vain; l of food produced in our country, has penalised the wage earner," said the chairman of the Wellington Harbor Board at the animal meeting of (he Board to-day. A failure to recognise this and to make an attempt to adjust matters show? our limitations as a community of business men, presumably interested in producing wealth under the best possible conditions. Our traditions as traders hold us in firm grip, and withal there is evidence on all sides of a very fine spirit of goodwill, wanting, it would appear, a master-mind to define a line of action.'* These remarks Jose none of their interest and significance from Ihe fact that tV-Y were addressed to a "Hoard that has not troubled in the past in cultivate happy relations with the workers under its control. The Wellington Harbor Board is a body definitely representative of business interests and its attitude towards the wharf laborers lias often been unsympathetic, to say the least. WORK OF THE FIRFMF.X. The ships' firemen have been giving trouble again and angry complaints were to be heard when the ferry steamer Maori had to abandon a run to Lyttelton owing to the inability of the engineers to secure the necessity number of stokehold hands. The attitude adopted by some of the men is annoying, undoubtedly, but the ill-will not he mended by failure to recognise that there is something to be said on the men's side. In the first place there is a real shortage of firemen, owin;; to the enlistment of hundreds of men from this labor group. Another point to remember is that the conditions of work in the stokehold make regular employment almost out of the question. It is recognised on both sides that a fireman requires frequent spells ashore, owing to the very severe character of his work. This fact is often overlooked when the question of wages is being discussed. The work is so very trying and unattractive, moreover, that the fireman of a good type is always looking foi a chance to change his trade. The British (lovernment has been forced to take notice of the fact that tiie firemen have rushed into the army, thus producing in ports of the United Kingdom the trouble that is being experienced here. The root of the whole trouble is that the fireman has a particularly nasty job. If shipowners would give their attention to that point, a remedy might be discovered.

TRAINING OF OFFICERS. A cablegram published the other day conveyed the information (hat the War Office was no longer appointing officers first and then training them; the new system required the prosneetive officers to go into the ranks and qualify for commissions in the training camps before they received the promotion. In other words the Imperial authorises Ia re converted after nearly twenty months of war to the system' that New Zealand has already in operation. This country has drawn a certain number of officers from the Territorial Force for service with the Expeditionary Force, but the other a.venue of approach to commissioned rank has been through the non-commissioned ranks. There lias been no Officers' Training Corps in connection with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, lien w)io were believed by the Defence authorities to possess the required qualifications have been taken into camp for training as non-com-missioned ofticcrs. They have received two months' training as privates and have then joined a reinforcement for a further sixteen weeks training as corporals or sergeants. During that period tliey have hpeii given i}n opportunity to qualify for commissions an;l it Jus been possible for them to become second lieutenants after nearly six months' training. The decision of the Imperial authorities is a tribute to the soundness of the New Zealand system.

THE GRIERSON INCIDENT. protests have boon raised against tlie uppojntment of a Commission of Inquiry In coimectioj) ffitl) allegations made concerning Lieutenant A. H. Grierson, of the 10th Reinforcements. The objectors actually suggest that tlie Government lias been guilty of "favoritism" in giving this young officer a chance to clear his name from what amounts to n charge of disloyalty! The delusion iif the Government happens to have been determined largely by the fact that the officer concerned was not in a position to face long and costly legal proceedings, such as probably would have followed if lie had proceeded against his detractor* In tho civil courts. But in any case the charge cow-owed the Government as much as the officer, since the Defence Department is expected to use a proper discretion in making appointments, and obviously it is in the ir.terests of the whole Dominion that the actual facts should be elicited as quickly as possible. Tho people who have made the charge ought to welcome a full public inquiry.