ANOMALIES IN SALARIES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13612, 22 December 1909, Page 6

ANOMALIES IN SALARIES.

Major T. W. McDonald, Officer Commanding the Public School Cadets, must be esteemed a lucky man. liis predecessor received a salary of £320, but Major McDonald's services arc reckoned to be worth £400 a year and £50 house allowance, besides travelling expenses. 3lost people, however, find that success is accompanied by some drawback, and the crumpled rose-lent iii the Major's couch may be represented by tho Opposition's inveterate habit of asking questions on matters which strike them ns requiring a little investigation and illumination. This habit was displayed last Saturday ■while the Education Department's estimates were being discussed. Mr James Allen wanted to know why Major McDonald's services were rated so much higher than his predecessor's. The Major, who was in the House at the time, apparently not far from the Ministerial benches, could probably have answered the question more to his own satisfaction than did >lr Fowlds. "Personal explanations'' of that kind are not yet, however, permitted, so Mr Fowlds had to do the explaining himself, and a poor job he made- of it. The Major, he said, had been connected -with an Education Board for many years, and "as a result it was felt that his selec- " tion for the position would greatly " stimulate the cadet movement." Aβ a " non sequitur"—remembering the curious variety of people who manage to get elected to Education Boards— this must hold the record. Mr Massoy suggested that the terms of the appointment seemed extraordinary, '' especially in these '• times of retrenchment." Mr Massey, of course, ought to know by this time that the Government's methods of retrenchment. are essentially sporadic, and that consiet-onr-y is the last characteristic that ope would expect in them. Mr Fowlds's retort that though these were days of .retrenchment there was also a desire to promote military training, seemed to lack cogency, and his assertion that the iiwijor really organised the cadet move. raent in the Wellington district did not satisfy Mr Massey's thirst for information as to why Major McDonald was paid bo much. Hβ pointed out that Cilonel Robin, the head of the defence forces, received £526, or only --75 a year more than tha commanding officer of cadets. That is the most cutious part of th« whole affair. Major McDonald, despite an. apparent lack of military training, may be so much tho best man for his work ac to justify hia promotion ovrer the beads of a number of men who are senior to him at a salary considerably higher than has previously been paid for the wdrk. Wβ know nothing of his qualifications except what Mr Fowlds told the House on Saturday, and the only effect of the Minister's remarks was to suggest the thought that the Major wa* singularly unfortunate in his defender. But it is a (striking anomaly that he should receire nearly as much as the Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Robin. It ie obvious, as a contemporary pointed out, that either the Major is overpaid, or Colonel Robin is greatly underpaid. Mr Allen declared candidly that Major McDonald owed his good f<jrtuno to influence, but an effort to reduce the salary as an indication that the House was not satisfied with, the Minister's explanation was rejected by tho usual majority. There are a lot of members on the Government side who seen to resent the bare idea of retrenchment, and to shudder at any attempt to investigate Government apnointmente.