CALLED TO ARMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 145, 19 June 1918, Page 4

CALLED TO ARMS.

(By Telegraph- Special to "Sta_") WELLINGTON, this day. t With each succeeding ballot prominent I men in the Public Service and business life are called for their country's service, but there has never been a list so interesting from this viewpoint as that of the first Class, C ballot. It seems to have gathered in a very choice collection of administrative talent from the Wellington area. Incidentally it will raise the question of essential public servants so acutely that the Government will be obliged to decide whether it will submit to the same inconvenience aa the commercial world, and do without some of its leading administrators. This week's list includes Mr. Paul Verschaffelt, the Public Service Commissioners' chief clerk. The Public Works Department also risks losing its chief outdoor executive head, Mr. F. W. Furkett, chief inspecting engineer, and the Education Department figures prominently in the ballot with its chief clerk, Mr. A. J. H. Benge. One of the Public Trustees, Mr. J. W. MacDonald, is called up, and outside the Public Service there arc some interesting selections. For instance, Mr. Rupert A. Armstrong, the redoubtable president of the Second Division League, has "drawn a marble," Mr. Frank W. Miller, secretary of the Public Service Association, Mr. H. D. Vickery, secretary of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Bernard F. Page, the city organist, are in the list. If Mr. Page appeals the Military Service Board will have the delicate task of deciding a question which has greatly exercised newspaper correspondents lately, whether the city organist can claim to belong to ' an "essential industry" as a musical educator!