WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

fcllll'PlXG IX WAR AULAS', '(Kiom l):ir Own Corespondent). Wellington. September S. Some additional rules laid down bill! British Admiralty for the guidance of iiK-rcliiiiit shipping in the war ureas are published in this week's Gazette. Referonce is made to some alteration and extension of the mine-fields in the Eng-' lisli Channel, and shipmasters are warned that they should secure the services ol Trinity House pilots. -It must not be supposed," state the authorities, "that navigation is necessarily safe in any part of the southern waters of the Xorth Sea." Two light-vessels have been moored in the English Channel nIV Folkestone, at a distance of five cables apart, and traffic is required to pass between these two ships unless orders to the contrary are received. Ships disregarding' this order will do so at their own risk. "In view of the danger of bis Majesty's ships approaching vessels, apparently neutral, Britisb or Allied trader?, but which in reality are German raiding cruisers,'' runs another paragraph, "it is necessary to adopt a special boarding procedure as a measure of precaution. This procedure has been notified to aH neutral and Allied rowers." The arrangement is that the warship will lower a boat and hoist a special signal. Tile Merchantman must then close upon the boat, whether the warship re,mains in the vicinity or not. The Lords of the Admiralty have taken into consideration "the fact that it may be necessary to forbid all entrance to certain ports of the Empire," and rules for the guidance of shipping are laid down accordingly. The ports affected include Wellington, Auckland, Lyttclton and Dunedin, and the chief ports in other parts of the Empire.

RECRUITING MATTERS. Shortages in drafts of recruit?, on Hie day of mobilisation are due usually to tlie failure of some of the enlisted men to present themselves on the day fixed for the commencement of their training. During the last six l months it lia.s not often happened tliat a district has not been able to call up the required number of men. But very often many of the men have failed to answer the call, although they had been previously passed as fit and accepted for service. District officers have sometimes called up men ten or fifteen per cent, in excess of requirements, and even then there has been a shortage at mobilisation. It appear, indeed, that there are in New Zealand some hundreds of young men who like to weni an armlet and have their names published in the newspapers among the lists of men wiio have volunteered for service; but who find it hard to make up their minds to go into camp. The existing system of recruiting is loose, and recruiting organisations throughout the Dominion have asked on many occasions that the Government should take measures to ensure that the man who registers and is passed as fit will he available for service when he is required. The Government proposes now to amend the system to the extent of requiring men to take the oath after registration and before they are served with, armlets, so that failure to respond to the mobilisation call will amount to desertion, and will be punishable. The need for this reform is shown by the experience of many recruiting officers. Instances might be quoted of men who have been called np for three, four and even six successive draft* and have stayed away every time. Sometimes they have made explanations, good or otherwise, and sometimes they have merely avoided putting in an appearance without offering any excuse at all. W'hen a man registers and is accepted for soil-vice under the present arrangement, he states the earliest date on which ho will be ready to enter camp, and also the amount of notice ho requires. Then ho is handed his khaki armlet, and he does not 'hear from the 'Defence authorities again, in the ordinary course of events, until he is called up. Jf he fails to answer that call, the Department writes, to him calling attention to his failure, and calls him np again for a later draft. Usually the man has some explanation to make, or at least takes the trouble to state that he .will be ready at a' later date. But he can fail as many as four times before the Defence Department attempts to recover the armlet with which lie was supplied, and recovery is not always easy, since the man may have changed his address. It would be unfair to regard as a '•slaekcr'' every man who fails to answer a mobilisation call. A man's circumstances may change materially aftelr his registration, and domestic or business reasons may induce him to delay going into eamp. The Defence authorities are always ready to listen sympathetically to any explanation of this character and to transfer to a later reinforcement the man who finds it difficult to comply with his original undertaking.., But when allowance has been made for all the eases of this character, there remains a residium of men who wear the khaki armlet under false pretences. They have enlisted but they are not willing to go into camp. THE TWO WELLINGTONS. The business people of Wellington (New South Wales), according to a cablegram from Sydney, are resentful over the fact that a letter addressed to their Chamber of Commerce was sent by tie State Postal Department to Wellington (New Zealand), and did not reach its proper destination for a month. They regard this incident as a slight upon their town and they mention, in anticipation of a suggestion regarding a change of name, that their centre "was a Wellington before the New Zealand Wellington was born.'' This grievance is an old one, and a remedy is not easy to find. Wellington (New Soutlh Wales) is a trills off the beaten tracks, but it is reported to have some excellent limestone nives, and the list of its residents in the Post Office .Directory contains more than 300 nanus. Naturally the citizens are proud of their town, and it vexes them that their letters should go astray. But the Federal Postmaster-General has stated that there are practical difficulties in Ulie way of sending to their local post office all the letters found in Australian mailboxes addressed to persons residing in "Wellington.'' There would ho congestion in the office, and sometimes business people are in a hurry. His suggestion that the letters "X.S.W." might be used lo prevent confusion was regarded as an affront to the Australian Wellington. The people of Wellington (New South Wales) n»y be able to find some consolation in the reflection that other towns have, suffered through a. similarity of names. The citizens of London (United States pf America) are often annoyed <

by the miscarriage (jf their letters, and there was an angry complaint from a business man in a London news-paper some time ago to the cTect that a Idler addressed by him to hi-, native loan of Boston bud actually been forwarded l\v l!!ie British IV.t (.Mice to -;.uuie place in Auicric"-"