CONDITIONS ON TRANSPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1919, Page 4

CONDITIONS ON TRANSPORT.

| AN INQUIRY REQUESTED ' FAILURE OF EDUCATION SCHEME^ By Telegraph.—Pre*« Association, <; Auckland, Last Night. ' A' petition drawing attention to th4> conditions on transports, particularly tar regard to women, and to the admlniftration of the military education ichtma overseas, was signed by over 700 mem who returned to New Zealand recently by the Ruahine. Xhis hag been forwarded to the Ac,ting Prime Minister by the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association, which has investigated the complaint* and has come to the conclusion that they are justified. Though no,t actuated by any sense of the grievances for which they personally desired redrew, they complained, not as soldiers, but h taxpayers and citizens who believed that the country was not receiving a satisfactory return for Government expenditure of funds. The petitioner* ask for an inquiry into the whole question of > transporting troops, which would clear up the matters mentioned, besides the If question of the repeated supply.-of stale, unwholesome, and maggot-infested atom issued io the troops at sea. In regard to the education scheme, complaint is made that unqualified men were appointed ,to administer it when highly qualified teachers in the forces were available. In consequence, it is affirmed, the education scheme has become thoroughly Siscredited among the soldiers, ana th* attendance at classes overseas bad titter ceased or become ludicrously small,