WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1916, Page 18

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

v NO INTERRUPTION. (From Our Own Corroj-pomlcnt.) ellinglon. Oct'. 11. The postpoiiciucnl of ili,. mobilisation of the 'J wen( v-fourlh I-ieinforccment.s—-thanks, nuvinly. to the rather unhappy fashion in which ii. was announced in flip newspapers—set the tongues of the gossips busy with many speculations as to (lie reason for the delay ill bringing th( men into camp. One of their suimises was that the labor unions had presented an ultimatum to the Minister of Defence declaring they would call a general strike if the men were taken to Trenthain before Christmas, and another was that the Auckland recruits, who had enlisted without compulsion, positively refused to leave their homes till after the festive season. These stories, of course, were pure inventions, but they were no more fanciful than the Minister's own statement that the permanent staff required a rest. The truth of the matter is that Surgeon-General Henderson who, happily, is an autocrat in his own department, declined to become responsible for more merf at Trentham til! additional accommodation was provided. The postponement will entail no break in the provision of Reinforcements and no delay in the dispatch of the Twenty-fourth.

THE DOMINION'S FINANCES. The Acting-Minister of Finance, whose, hands were fairly full before he took over Sir Joseph Ward's principal portfolio, is now the hardest-taxed member of the Cabinet, hut his business training and experience are standing liirn in good stead and the work of the Treasury, which has well-nigh doubled since the beginning of the war. is running aa smoothly as ever it did. The statement of the revenue and expenditure for the eight months of the financial year ended on November SO last, which Mr. Myers has just issued, shows the finances of the country, in spite of all the adverse circumstances inseparable from the war, to be in a thoroughly sound condition. The Minister evidently accepts it as a settled thing that New Zealand will continue its policy of sell-reliance after the war and in urging the public to limit their expenditure to "the lowest reasonable standard'' he is looking forward to Hie Dominion being a lielp, both financially and economically, to the Mother Country in the years to come. lie has struck the right note, in just the right way. ' „ LAND FOR SOLDIERS. "'here still is a good deal of adverse comment concerning the (i-ov.crimii-nt'B adi'Jr.istTaticn of the Discharged Soldier? h'etilement Act which was primarily intended by Parliament to assist men returning from the war without means or with only small means in obtaining a footing upon the land. The Minister's latest effort in this direction is the reservation of 34,839 Seres in the Kaitieke and Waimarino counties for : sub-division under the Act. The land is described as '•'undulating to steep hilly country" and the soil as "fair to good, resting on sandstone and papa formation." The whole of the block is under virgin bush and lies between the Rctarukc and Mangapurua landings on the VVanganui River. The Mangapurua landing is 74} miles and the Retaruko landing 108 miles from Wanganui. No doubt this country will be capable of great things when it has been felled and Imrned and grassed, but to offer it to returned soldiers without capital and perhaps with impaired health probably will strike practical people and the men themselves as a travesty upon the good intentions of Parliament.

WAR REGULATIONS. People who wish to keep within the four corners of the law will do well to read very carefully the new war regulations which hare been gazetted this week. Very properly the Government has made provision for restraining certain voluble folk who are given to talking for talking's sake without much regard to the meaning or the effect of their words. But within its definition of ''seditious intention'' and "seditious tendency" are included attempts to "excite disaffection" against the Government of New Zealand and it is just conceivable that a critic of the National Cabinet might find himself in trouble if lie ventured to suggest that j\lr. P. C. Webb would make a better Minister of Defence than Mr. Allen does or Mr. J. Payne a better Minister of Finance than Sir Joseph Ward. The members of the. Peace Society also must take heed of the r.eW conditions. They no longer can call out for a. premature peace without making themselves liable to the pains and penalties provided for impatient people. Taken all in all, however, the regulations will serve a very useful purpose. MILITARY APPEAL BOARDS. The work of the Military AppealBoards is not proceeding as rapidly as the recruiting authorities would wish, and the indications are that additional boards will be required in- order to keep abreast of the appeals that are being reeeived from reservists summoned iijjder clause 35 and picked/up in the-bal-lot. Tho authorities are . anxious to avoid the creation of additional boards, owing to t!ie desirability of maintaining uniformity of practice, and it is possible that the existing bodies will be able to accelerate their proceedings as they accumulate a store of precedents for their own guidance. The number of appeals received up to the present time is not reiver than 2000, inelusing the clause 35 men, and it probably readies 3000. There are four boards at work, and it (iocs not appear that they have been handling more than ten -appeals a day each nn the average. Yet it is important, from the point of view of the recruiting branch, that all the appeals at present in hand should be heard within the next two or three weeks, in order that tho rolls of the "2-lth and 25th Reinforcements, dfle to be mobilised during January, should be completed. The prompt hearing of appeals is important for another reason. If long delays occur before the reservists who have appealed are brought before tho Military Service Boards, a premium is placed upon tho raising of objections to service. The man who accepts the call }nd makc-s no appeal will go into camp promptly, while the reservist who tries to avoid service by raising some possibly frivilous objection will secure many weeks' grace. The fact that the majority of the appeals are dismissed by the boards shows the desirability of [prompt hearings, , , I HOME fcULE. Naturally Irishmen in this part of the world, having only tile brief cabled 'reports of what ia happening in the Old Country, will look with some suspicion upon the scheme propounded by Sir Edward C&rson for the settlement of 'tho Hoine Rule controversy; but a

gentleman in Wellington who lias taken a kern interest in the subject for many years declares lint the Ulster leader's proposal, assuming it is not nut forward as a recruiting bait, oilers the ile.it practicable solution of the problem yet- submitted to the IrUi people During ii rccci.t vi-ii, to Ireland, just bcl'ii!e the outbreak of war. he Wii, surprised lo find among his Catholic friends ;i growing ie.-peet fur Sir Edward CiU'soii and a linn belief in his sincerity and good intentions. This certainly is not what other people in New Zc-aiand from their reading of ihe newspapers would have expected, but the gentleman who makes the statement is a Catholic himseH and a warm sympathiser with the aspirations of his Irish friends. It would be st-rangc, out none the less gratifying on that account, if an.ong tin.- consol.it ions evervoue hones tli« Empire may obtain for the war, the final settlement of the Irish question at the hands of a strong man, who had seemed to clothe it with many of its difficulties, should be -numbered.