The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1918. WASTEFUL METHODS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1918. WASTEFUL METHODS.

Some very illuminating evidence is being gathered by the Defence Expenditure Commission. In Sir Robert Anderson the commission has a chairman who obviously knows what is required of him, and is doing it without fear or favor. He has had the salaries of certain officers before him, including those of the Dental Department, and has expressed the opinion that some of them are "very, very high" for the class of work the lucky recipients are doing. So far he has been unable to ascertain how these salaries were fixed, a succession of witnesses disclaiming responsibility and knowledge; but he believes the Minister of Defence win be "very much surprised" when he hears about them. Sir Robert Anderson i» in tho somewhat invidious position of being both counsel and judge on the commission. He has not only to listen to what the witnesses say voluntarily, but also to cross-examine them, if the term is permissible, on what they leave unsaid. The other day Colonel Gibbon, Chief of the General Staff, a most capable officer, in discussing salaries, said he hoped if a "levelling" were under - taken it would';be "up" andinot "down"

a very proper . l !i, of n.;ir,se, on behalf of his fellow uniirio. JU;L llic chairman at once pounced upon the ease of a caplain who is receiving close on £SOO a year, apart from certain perquisites, and the colonel, just as promptly, declared this was an appointment made without his knowledge and without his approval. Disclosures of this kind, which have been made at every sitting of the commission in Wellington, and commented upon by the chairman, have set the public talking. It has been shown that dentists who before the war were making £3OO or £4OO a year, or less, in private practice, are now resplendent in khaki and braid, with the rank of major or licut.colonel, and receiving anything from £SOO to £7OO a year, with secretaries and orderlies and handsome margins for expenses. The admirable work done by many of these gentlemen ia admitted, but it is protested that other dentiats have been called up in the ballot and sent away carrying a rifle at 5s a day. What the public want to know ia why the more fortunate members of the profession were not conscripted and paid salaries that would have left them with the satisfaction of making some sacrifice on. behalf of their country. We are told that it is a time for sacrifice, and it is a very admirable quality, but the sacrifice should not be asked of one section only—the men who are doing the fighting, and their dependents—while others are living on the fat of the land, and, in many cases, doing better than ever they did. The commission has also revealed the great waste that is everywhere going on. The Government professes an inability to find the money to pay adequate allowances to soldiers' wives, yet it is not too much to say that double the amount required for this purpose could be saved in administration expenditure in Wellington and at the camps. The blame for this shocking waste must be laid at the doors of the Government, which has consistently refused the help and advice of men eminent and successful in business, anxious to do their "bit" for the country at this time of stress, to proffer help was to be snubbed immediately, ( and the war machine has been left to the professional or amateur soldiers, whose business inefficiency is notorious. General Godley wa3 an exception. He established the Territorial system in New Zealand with great success, but just at the time when his services could be most valuable in New Zealand he was sent away with the original Expeditionary Force, and his place taken by General Robin, who has never been equal to the task. The Minister of Defence is loyal to his officers, though they may be hopelessly inefficient, and the wasteful methods revealed by the commission are only what could be expected. War is, after all, mainly a business, and must be conducted on business lines, but this cardinal fact never seems to have impressed itself upon the Minister of Defence and the two political leaders, who prefer tripping abroad to grappling with the problems that have for so long been awaiting solution at home.