A FUTILE BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 224, 20 September 1924, Page 6

A FUTILE BUSINESS.

The policy of recruiting for the navy in New Zealand is a hollow sham in keeping with very many of the other activities of the present Government. It affords Ministers an opportunity to bang the big drum —an exercise in which they are peculiarly apt. But recruiting as it exists here is objectionable on a variety of grounds and outrageously costly. Mr. Wilford does a public service in pointing out the utter foolishness of the business. The accounts are so presented that it is now not possible to give the exact figures for the upkeep of that unseaworthy relic the Philomel, and the inclusive costs of training New Zealanders to be good seamen and petty officers, but the amount is not overstated at £1000 per week. The scheme has been a failure from the outset, and in the House last night Sir Heaton Rhodes' statement that, "there are no failures in the recruiting system and young fellows are coming forward in sufficient numbers," is contrary to fact. On the Estimates for the current year is an item £1000 for advertising, etc., and the explanation accompanying it is that, "owing to fallirig-off in recruiting, it is necessary to print posters and pamphlets for issue in the Dominion." This is a direct contradiction of the Minister's statement. As a matter of fact, no businesslike effort has hitherto been made to promote and stimulate- recruiting. We hold, and hold very strongly, that there is no occasion to urge picked young men of this young country to enter the navy. For those who feel an inclination to join there exists no obstacle, quite apart from any expensive recruiting and training scheme, while the mercantile marine affords a further opening for any young New Zealander who wishes to follow the sea. From the surplus population of England ample recruits are available for manning His Majesty's ships, and finer material it is not possible to get. Healthy young New Zealanders are better employed in producing the wealth to provide for an adequate system of defence for this ' potentially rich, but sparsely populated J country. If this Government were honest it would admit that the scheme, I both in its inception and the apathetic way in which it has been carried out, has failed and should be abolished; but perhaps this is too much to expect from an Administration that has always declined to face unpleasant facts. While we cannot prevent the squandering of tens of thousands annually on this foolish project we would fail signally if we did not make an emphatic protest.