WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE WAR LOAN, A MILLION SHORT. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, April 21. Tlie Minister of Finance is in no way perturbed by the short subscription of the war loan. He regards it neither as an indicatioli of the slackening enthusiasm on the part of the public nor as a symptom of lessening buoyancy in the finances of the country. He is satisfied both the large and the small capitalists, speaking generally, are just as ready as ever they were to help the Empire in this time of crisis. But scores of people refrained from subscribing to the loan with a deliberate purpose of bringing the compulsory clauses of the Finance Act into operation and stirring up the big men who have neglected their duty. The Minister expects to get all the money he requires by these means, and to bo under no necessity of floating any part of the twenty million loan till the end of November or middle of December. WAR EXPENDITURE. The evidence given before the Defence Expenditure Commission continues to give color to many savoury stories that have been in circulation here for months past. Mr. B. C. Warnes, correspondence officer in the Base Records Department, has supplemented his previous statement by declaring the recruiting branch is "very incompetent." There was a Director of recruiting and an AssistantDirector, he said, a Deputy-Director and an Assistant-Deputy-Director, and none of them seemed" to be doing anything that was particularly advantageous to the country or the forces. A more impressive witness, and one whose word will carry weight throughout the country, was Colonel Campbell, Secretary to the Treasury, This gentleman feared there had been over-centralisation in Wellington, and he was sure there had been extravagance. The conditions in , the latter respect had been improved, I but even yet they were far from being perfect. OVER-STAFFED. Colonel Campbell pointed out many instances of over-lapping and unnecessary duplication, and mentioned cases where there appeared to be over-staffing. "The tendency in all Government departments which has been aggravated during the .enlarge their staffs," he said, "is for the subordinate officers to endeavor to set up separate subsidiary departments of their own. This tendency is by no means confined to the Defence Department." This statement, coming from such a source, ought to open the eyes of the public to an evil which was rampant in Wellington long before the war and which has been aggravated during the last two or three years. The colonel has a poor opinion of the business ability of the average military officer. There are some of them drawing high salaries he would not trust with any authority at all to spend money not their own. LABOR'S PROTEST. At a meeting held under the auspices of the Labor Representation Committee last night the audience, after demanding the resignation of the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke), on account of his refusing to grant the use of the Town Hall to certain Labor bodies, passed a resolution protesting against the prolongation of the life of Parliament and against Mr, Massey and Sir Joseph Ward leaving New Zealand "before taking the verdict pf the people." The audience was a fairly large one, but it can scarcely be taken to have represented the mass of the workers. A majority of the Labor Party, using the term in its broadest sense, realise that an appeal to the electors during the course of the war could only confirm the National Government in office and further postpone the "political revolution" of which all impatient Democrats are dreaming.