WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

WAR AND FINANCE. MILITARY EXHENDITiUHE. „ (Special Correspondent)'. ' Wellington, May 18. As the time for calling up the Second Division draws nearer interest in the pay of soldiers and provision for their dependants is extending and becoming keener. The single man of the right type with the- present pay can go off to the war with a light heart, glad of the opportunity to take part in the great adventure. With the married mare, however, the case is different. He is as eager as the unmarried man to servo his country and perhaps even more conscious of his obligations to humanity. But ho has a wife and probably children and he has a right to demand that these shall be adequately cared for during his absence and the public have a duty to support him in his demand, THE SEPARATION 'ALLOWANCE. Whether the Second Division will be called up in three months or four months is still uncertain, but it seems likely the first draft will go into camp not later than September and by that time Parliament should have made provision for wives and children that will enable husbands and fathers to enter upon their military duties as free as possibje from distracting domestic tares. Parliament, if the reports coming from all parts of the country can be trusted, will be prepared to vote whatever money may be '."quired towards this end and the Government will be expected to provide it even if it entails much heavier taxation than was contemplated at the beginning of the war, when no one fully realised the magnitude of the .ask that lay before the Empire. RAISING THE FUNDS.

The Hon. A. M. Myers, who has been controlling the finances of the Dominion with quiet, unostentatious ability during the absence of Sir Joseph Ward, has prepared the public for another large war loan this year and has shown the country to be well able to.provide whatever money may be needed. It is net within his province at present to indicate the sources from which the new revenue will be drawn, but it is taken for granted that an attempt will be made to divert a larger proportion of war profits into the treasury and that the ordinary income tax win be substantially increased. All that is certain, however, is that the neople will bo asked to make very real sacrifices and that the burden of taxation will rest on a much broadened basis. NEED FOR ECONOMY. '<

In this connection members of Parliament are promising to have something to say about economies which ought to be practised "by the Government itself. It is comipon talk here that the waste and extravagance at the military camps are running away with thousands of pounds a week, chiefly in the commissar,iat department, where good food is thrown away literally in cartloads, and in the equipment) department., where valuable clothing and covering are destroyed like old rags. Then rc&ponsible men who have seen service at the front are declaring that much of tha training undertaken in tho camps is time and money wasted and that much better results might be obtained at half the cost. The stories aro far too',circumstantial to be airily dismissed as mere camp gosßip.