WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 June 1917, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

V THE A-US'EBALIAN WHEAT PURCHASE. (From Our Own Correspondent)'. A definite announcement regarding the Government's purchase lof Australian wheat is still delayed. The position is rather strange. The Minister of Agriculture (Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald) went to 'Australia many weeks ago to buy wheat to cover the anticipated shortage in this country. Everybody knows that the Commonwealth has enormous quantities of wheat in hand and that the grain is deteriorating in stack and store, with small prospect of a clearance. It was pssnmed here that Mr. Mac Donald would" be able to buy the wheat that New Zealand needed at a fairly low price if delivery was taken in Australia. The Minister came back to Wellington last month and since then it has been stated repeatedly in Australia that he arranged to pav 5s 6d per bushel f.o.b. for a milHop bushels of wheat. But the terms of the deal are still an official f secret here, though as a matter of fact there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the Australian report. The delay lends some color to the report that the Government would like to revise the arrangement. | The Australian Government possibly is I unwilling to amend a bargain that has I been described widely in the Commonwealth as a very good one from the point of view of the wheat growers. VOLUNTARY RECRUITING. The Minister for Defence is reported to have said in Auckland that he would like to see voluntary recruiting closed altogether. This wish lias the support of much military opinion. The voluntary system has ceased to provide a large proportion of the recruits required, and its existence complicates very greatiy the administration of the compulsory- system. The voluntary system introduces an uncertain factor into mobilisation calculations, and iti makes more difficult the work of the recruiting branch and the Government Statistician's office in connection with the ballets. ■'Volunteering involves the constant changing of district quotas, and it is a fruitful cause of ballot errors, since the soldiers' attestation papers often fail to show the same particulars as the registration papers. Then the volunteering system complicates the task of the military service boards and the Efficiency Board in reserving the workers required for essential industries. Men come forward "out of their turn." The employer can appeal for a volunteer, of course, but the man quite often thinks it his duty to refuse to fall back into his employment and the boards must let him have his own way. Another point arises in con- ■ nection with the Second Division. If i men aro allowed to volunteer ahead of I their class, the cost of separation alj lowances and pensions w ill grow more i rapidly than otherwise would be the : case. Arguments can be adduced on the ' other side, but there is no doubt that limitary opinion tends, to support the abandonment of the voluntary system for t.V remaining period of the war.