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Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17102, 24 March 1921, Page 6

-■ The "Dftil ELreann's" defiant attitude towards the taking of the census next month i* no new development. It •Mm* to hare been recognised at Home

for some time past that there would be most serious difficulties in the way of carrying out the work in Ireland. Hitherto the Metropolitan Police in Dublin, and the Royal Irish Constabulary in the country, liave acted as enumerators, but they are now too deeply engaged in less peaceful work to be able to undertake it this year. The only way out of the difficulty, according to a high official in Dublin, would be for the Government to appoint civilian enumerators, and the opinion was expressed that few Irishmen would bo jot to undertake the duty. "Strangers," it was remarked, ,: are viewed with •suspicion in many parts of the country, and military activities, too, are on a scale which does not tend to enhance the amenities of travelling." The failure of the Government to take the census of Ireland would emphasise the sadly complex situation in that country at present. ♦ It appears, from the lengthy articles which have been appearing in the Sydney papers, that the Commission of Enquiry into the administration of Cockatoo Island naval dockyard had a veritable! Augean stable to lcok into. A cable message say-i that over £109,000 worth of materials are missing, and unaccounted for, and that an exhaustive examination will reveal leakages totalling £230,000. This will not be the first time that the affairs of Cockatoo Island have been investigated. In 1919 the Commonwealth Economy Commission conducted an enquiry, and its subsequent report was most scathing. "EVidcnco supplied by highly-placed and reliable officers," the report said, "indicates that in many branches no attempt whatever is made to check unnecessary expenditure and extravagance. One officer said, 'thdVe is no administrative control, and no one considers the question of cost.' " A statement with regard to the stores branch showed that stocktaking took place on June 30th, 19io, but the stock-sheets showing tlio result only left the dock in March, 1919. They showed deficits amounting .to £52,886, and surpluses of £42,807, making a net deficit of £10,079 on a total 'stock of £117,071. Cockatoo Island is the most modern and efficiently equipped dockyard in Australia, and probably in the South- I ern Hemisphere. Until recently, however, its operation has been continually hampered by industrial trouble, and sections of. the highly-paid employees have deliberately practised a policy of go-slow. What Cockatoo Island methods mean to tho taxpayer of Australia is evident from the ca'se of the _ light cruiser Adelaide. The keel of this ship was laid in November, 1917. On July 23th, 1918, the hull was launched. Today,, nearly 3i years later, the vessel is still fax from completion, and this notwithstanding the fact that most of her machinery, and her guns, nnd other equipment were constructed in England. The Adelaide, which is a si'ster ship -to the Melbourne and Sydney, is practically identical in class with H.M.S. Chatham, which was built in Chatham dockyard and commissioned in one year and ten months from th£ laying of her keeJ. A cruiser—' .H.M.S. Caroline —of a later anU faster type than the Adelaide, was Completed in England during the war in ten months. H.M.S. Chatham cost the British taxpayer to build and equip £349,358. The expenditure on the Adelaide to date has exceeded £1,000,000. Since the armistice, a number of Royal Navy cruisers of the Adelaide type have been sold out of the service for breaking up, and- others have been placed in reserve. The Adelaide, which has been under construction for nearly •3£ years, is therefore obsolete, while still unfinished.