WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1918, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

WAR EXPENDITURE COMMISSION. THE DELAYED RETORT. (Special Correspondent)^ Wellington, July 17. The delay in publishing the report of fte War Expenditure Commission is giving rise to a great deal of comment and speculation- The comment is not .particularly complimentary to the Defence Department and the speculation varies from the obvious to the highly improbable. The fact that the sittings of the Commission were open to the public and fairly fully reported by the newspapers makes it all the more difficult to understand why the conclusions Sir Robert Anderson and his colleagues have drawn from the evidence are being withheldThe Commission's judgment on some features of the administration scarcely can he more Bevere than is that of the public, and on others it is known to be better informed and more appreciative. But the stories in circulation, some to the effect that the Chairman, who returned to Australia five or six weeks ago, is being urged to reconsider certain passages in the report," are only what might have been expected in the circumstances. LAST MAN ON THE FARM. At yesterday's sitting of the Fir3t Wellington Military Service Board the acting-chairman, Mr D. McLaren, made a statement concerning the "last man on the farm" which ought to go unheeded by, people who are seeking to evade military service by pleading their responsibilities as producers. Taking as his text an advertisement appearing in a provincial newspaper urging any man with a distaste for life in the trenches to pay £30,000 for a farm capable pf, producing twenty .bales of wool and thus constitute himself the "last man," he let all and sundry know that the Military Service Boards were not going to allow themselves to be humbugged in this fashion and that Retribution would follow quickly on the heels of any individual who attempted to dodge his duty to tye Empire. ProbaJbly the advertisement was a hoax, as even the most arrant shirker would hesitate to pay £30,000 for a farm capable of producing only twenty bales of wool a year, but it served the acting-chairman's purpose well enough as the basis of a timely warning to the unwilling reservist. • THE XiUNOIL AND THE COW. If it were not such a constant reproach to the city and such a serious menace to the health of the citizens, there would be a good deal of humor to be extracted from Wellington's perennialJrouible over its milk supply After wrestling with the problem for half a dozen years and more the City Council has inspired a newspaper paragraph announcing that "it is considered practically certain the special committee set up to consider the various phases of the milk problem will be in a position to submit ita report to the next meeting of the Council on Thursday week," and then the citizens will be asked to contemplate "some of the most important proposals in regard to the milk supply ever placed before a municipal authority in Australasia," Stupendous! But, as they are calling out themselves, what the citizens want is milk, more and better, not proposals. A HAPPY RETORT. Sir James Allen has not always been entirely happy in his retorts to pinpricks of the Second Division League* nor entirely generous in his estimate ot the excellent work done by this persistent organisation, but in his comment upon the League's claim to have wrung from him all the concessions that have 'been made to the soldier and his dependents he leaves little to be desired. "TtdS assumption," he says, "altogether l eltoi inates members of Parliament, Ministers of the Crown, the Press, War Relief Associations, Returned Soldiers' Associations, the National Efficiency. Board, the head 3 of the Defence Department, and the large army of patriotic citizens throughout the Dominion who are continually suggesting improvements for the benefit of our soldiers and their dependents." For once, at any rate, the laugh remains on the side of the Minister.