DEFENCE EXPENDITURE COMMISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 April 1918, Page 5

DEFENCE EXPENDITURE COMMISSION.

RETURNED SOLDIERS' DEPARTMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, April 24. (living evidence before the Defence Expenditure Commission to-day, J. R. Sampson, officer in charge of the Returned Soldiers' Information Department, said that up to the end of last February accounts for the Cost Department had been passed by him totalling £79 Do. After deducting amounts paid to soldiers .for special tuition, allowances for railway fares ami medical examinations, tiie average cost ot the department ioil t'he two and a-half years of it s existence was £2402 a vear, including the initial expenses. As far a§ expertso was concerned, he did not see how the Returned Soldiers' Association could administer the office more economically than his department. There were signs that the Department's schemes for financially assisting men learning new trades at technical schools, factories, workshops, etc., was meeting with increasing favour. A scheme which might involve the expenditure of thousands of pounds of public moneys could not, he thought, be handed over to an association of private persons not subject. to the control of a responsible Minister. It was impossible to conceive that public opinion would approve of the whole responsibility of providing training and employment for disabled soldiers Should be handed over to a private institution in exchange for a subsidy of ;£3OQ per annum, the Government presumably thereafter washing its hands of all responsibility. Of the 17,050 men returned, 5108 had gone back to their former or other oi cupations, while 3107 had signified that they did not require assistance. DEFECTIVE CHECKING SYSTEM. Wellington, Last Night. At the Defence Commission, Archibald Walker, Lloyd's surveyor, in further evidence, said tho previous statements regarding the fitting up of transports were not quite correct. Twitted by the chairman, who said it was disappointing that witness knew so little in view of the fact that ho had received £3OOO in fees ill three years, witness replied that he had to pay an assistant £3OO a year to do his own work. He didn't think the fees received were excessive. Captain Kirkwood, secretary of the Transport Board, said that in the earlier ships there was no check on the work or material. The chairman: Ts that really so? The Government is so punctilious about small things that it is rather remarkable there was no check on larger items of expenditure.