DEFENCE MALADMINISTRATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue 55, 7 March 1905, Page 5

DEFENCE MALADMINISTRATION.

HOW NOT TO DO IT. .INCREASED EXPENDITURE WITHOUT RETURN. DEPARTMENTAL DLUNDERB. No. I. It ia probably only in a, time of prosperity ilml tno colony can viow with indifference the immense increase that hus taken place m defence expenditure, without corresponding benefit to tlio defences. When — if ever — a, period of " slump " ariROS, and depression pinches, the public will look more closely into these and other things. In the meantime, it may be interesting to touch on a few pointn in which the policy of muddle conspicuously reveals itself. EXPENDITURE'INCREASES 80 PER CENT. IN SIX YEARS. Where does the money go to ? In 189899 Government appropriated £110,680 in connection with the Dofence Department. For 1904-5 tho. appropriation was £198,114, or something' approaching double the amount. AH that increase in six years, nnd what ifj there to show for it? To what corresponding extent have our defences been improved ? It is true that the Departmental Head Office, from being a place with an Under-Secretury, a clerk, and a endet, salaries £675, has become an establishment with four clerks and a cadet, in addition to the Undor-Sccretury, salaries £1562. But havo tho defences been improved, are the Department's policy and mfclhoda any saner than they used to be? The year 1898-99 is cfiosen simply because it is unaffected by war expenditure, and thpieforo compares well with tho 1904-5 appropriations, which include only one item (£500), in connection with South African contingents. Tho £110,680 in 1898-(« comprised salaries £43,598, and other charges £67,082 ; the appropriation of £198(114 in 1904-5 comprised salaries £62,309, and other charges £136,805. Subdividing the total appropriations in another way, tho Defence Department received £2635 in 1898-99, £8583 in 1904-5 ; permanent militia, and volunteers, £75,936 in 1898-99, £131,648 in ,1904-5 ; stores and magazines, £3052 in 1898-99, £4765 in 1903-4 ; " miscellaneous services," £29,057 in 1898-99, £52,818 in 1904-5. MONEY WASTED, WHILE VITAL DEFECTS^ REMAIN. . Tho objecb of theso articles is to show that, though wo havo nearly doubled our expenditure in holf-a-dozdn years, nothing like a corresponding benefit has been received. Certain grave, indeed fatal, defects in our defences still remain unrepaired. Firstly, we havo no organising staff and no organisation. In tho event of war, our twelvo or thirteen thousand volunteers and tho handful of permanent men wodld. bo without a system and without a head. This strikes at tho root of our defenco forces*. Secondly, wo have no transport, fib that any field force required on emergency would be paralysed. Thirdly, wo have no proper system of ammunition supply in tho event of hostilities. Fourthly, vo are without an organised /nodical department. ' Fifthly, we have not, in any of the four centres where tho forts are, enough trained men to man the forts with two reliefs as required in war time. This strikes ftt. the root of tho garrison artillery arm of tho defences. Sixthly, the submarine bknoh hns " gone to pieces," and could not lay its minefield in effective position in anything like reason* able time. Each of these is aTfatnl defect, either in the arm concerned or in the defences as a whoft • collectively, they paralyse our defending forces in toto. And those aro only the conspicuous faults. Among matters of detail-— perhaps no less graye — are the failure to equip the infantry with entrenching tools, and to provide proper signalling equipment. Field artillery and field engineer^ have been starved ; tho latter, through luck of equipment, merely play at the grtind. These are all things that tho Defence Department should do and does not do, and they therefore do not supply an answer to the question : Where does the money go to? What they prove is that it does not get into tho rigiit channel. Where it. really does go to is a mattor that could iiot bo wholly determined except by ft Royal Commission, with extensive powers artd patience to cxploro the archives of our War Office and the endless departmental ramifications. But various detached Incidents occasionally reach (ho light ut day that show to tho public thnb much of the taxpayer's monoy Is literally thrown into the *n. Not only aro defects left unrepaired, but money that might repair thorn is squandered. A FEW OF THE LEAKAGES. Even if tho highest efficiency of men nnd material ia unattainable in a country of this jtire, we might at least expect some degreo of unprovment in roturrt for the great — find greatly increased — annual outlay. We cftnnot bo a Great Pow-" er, but we" need not cost our money ujion the waters nnd make ourselves a etaild J ing joke. Though wo cannot in a day renew oilt-of-dato (but by no means useless) forts, thero are, as has been shown, many other things that) wo might* do, and these, or an instalment of them, might be taken in hrind. But instead of that, tho bofenco Department, presided ovot' by tile Premier, prefers to wnsto tllo money in ordering", at Hortle, special steamer's to ply in Waters that are 1 to 6 shnllotf for their draught. (Vido the case df tho submarine mining' dteamer Lady Rdbertß, recently sold in Auckland at « great lo»».) The Department impoM a staff officer of field engineers', a captain of the Imperial Army, a flrst-clnftS man iri fortifications. Wh'nt funds have evef been provided for engineers or fortifications in order' that the new staff officer tnay make himself useful? He is capital lying idle. The Minister for Defence prpfpra to employ a military adviser (td liinueif I), persons to "boss cadets, ahd sundry other oftintnenls. At tho same time",' tho Staff Officer of Engineers is paid more than the Under-Secietary for Juatico himself, and more than any one in Iho Department except the Commandant. Nevertheless, the Statf Officer of Engineer* is capital lying Idle — rusting. The befenop Department lias established no claim to memory for an honest attempt to spend its money wisely with the object of making the best of the material at its command. Rather will its name live in history for Gilbortian incidents like that of the Lady Roberts, and, like the importation, at great cost, of an Biri b.l. gun that was left to lid for years on tho Sandhills hear Duriedin, and that lind never l>een ef feted yet. There are niatly stioh incidents) ahd it is by these the Defence Department will be remembered. A DEADLOCK DEPARTMENT. What l.s the Defence Depivrtmerft ? Every schoolboy will nt once reply "Mr. Seddon," htiUno doubt lie iHH be in fch* > uaiu i-h?ht v But, to as> a little deejjei^

it heems that the Defence Department. is, like the British Constitution, "a eystetn of checks." Only, wliile tho Briiish Jimotitution does forge ahead ftomctitnes,. tlio Defence Depnrtin«nt<-nevGr doos. Ite lnoc-hanisin — the machinery part — is designed to l/o Bolt-chocking ; the civilian head of tho Department, and tho military hond, are carefully maintained as it brake on each other; and behind the dual control, with ita paralysing effecta, the Minister-in-Charge may rest safoly and serenely. If ho wants a thing done, it is done, but if the Commandant wants a tiling that the Minister does not -want, there ib tho Under-Sccretary, representing the Civil Service and the financial side, to enter a veto. Tints initiative is crippled bolow, and proceeds only from on top. When in the House, the Minis-, tor may shelter behind his two l>ead men, mutually impotent, or he may put them up to fight each other in Hansard, as hedid last session. This matter arose out of a recommendation by the present Commandant that the Department of tho Un-der-Secretary for Defence should be placed under the Commandant. His principal argument for this change is that the Civil Service head line supremo control, not only of the finances, but of military stores; bo long as they ore M the central etorea and before they are sent to the forts ; and as, in time of wur, store* and equipment would naturally come under the Commandant, they should also be under him in time of peace. The Undersecretary for t Defence, of course, takes the opposite view, and in tho Honso tho Premier uphold the Under-Secretary. Except where the Premier ventures to oppose his own opinion in nrilitury expert matters, the object of these articles is not to set up the Commandant against him. In this case tire Preniiei-, in championing the civil us against th« military authority, is treading on ground where ho may havo some claim to be at home; nor is it necessarily tho writer's purpose, at the present stage, \i> support the opposite side. But this passing reference is made to show how convenient a deadlock of departmental authorities must bo to any xMinister who does not wish his Department to get on a too full head of steam. (To be continued.)