LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BY MEECUTIO. The Hon. Geo. Fowlds lias appeared as the champion of a course advocated in this column many weeks ago, viz., that each military district in the Dominion should contribute to the Expeditionary Forces a quota in proportion to the available number of men of military age. The Minister for Defence answers this by a rather cheap allusion to his desire not to disappoint Auckland recruits, and a quite unworthy effort to shield his native Otago. This is the essence of Mr. Allen's replv to Mr. Fowlds: '"There is no failure in Otago. They are doing then share as Auckland is doing her's, but it happens that there are more men >.f military age in Auckland and Wellington than in Otago." Now. the fust part of this statement is quite incorrect : the second part is known to everybody, but is no answer to the facts stated by Mr. Fowlds.

When the carle forces wore raised each military district was asked to find a quota, based on the population of the district. Otago failed to find this quota, and it was pointed out that as young men had been drifting from Otago she had not the proportion of potential recruits available 'n Auckland and Wellington. This is true beyond question. The obvious remedy was to base the quota, as Mr. Fowlds suggests, on the actual number of men of military age in each district. Mr. Allen thought otherwise. He took the number of volunteers as the determining factor, with the result that the North Island, where there is keenness in recruiting, is providing two-thirds of the men going to the front, and the whole of the South Island, where the young men are shy, only one-third. All the available figures show that Otago is not doing her share, and M«\ Allen, being Minister for Defence and an Otago man, should have been the first to tell her so.

One of the members of Parliament in his contribution to the prolonged Budget debate the other night observed that the public probably is unable to see the necessity for such a lengthy discussion. He attempted to show that a financial debate extending over nearly a fortnight 1 was justified by the occasion, but it is I doubtful whether he succeeded in con--1 vincing the country as to the soundness I of his argument. Every phase of the I Government's Budget proposals has yet I to come before Parliament, in the form 1 of a separate Bill, and any necessary j elucidation*of members' views might well •! be deferred*till then. The unfortunate 1 habit of political verbosity, which often $f consists of no more than the wearisome H elaboration of the obvious, cannot be subIs - dued even in the present time of stress S and war. A graduated tax on members' H speeches might with advantage be added Kl to I the National Ministry's war taxation M measures. < One new member who has E been delving into the' matter has found [■-'-' that the cost of Hansard is about £11,000 g a year. II members were allowed a fair ;" time or space exemption and then taxed .! on a sliding scale in regard to the excess ■ of their speeches it would bring perhaps ~ only -a little revenue, but it would also pi effect s a great saving in the time of the House, and in the cost of running the Parliamentary machine, as well as in the i-i cost,of reporting and printing speeches. '"(' .public of course would have to be - ijonfent with an attenuated Hansard, -but this is i'lame of" universal and it is quite conceivable that even this deprivation would be cheerfully accepted. —■•* ' ,• Nobody has ever yet been quite able to understand why the public school* cadets were abolished. There was never a more thoroughly popular organisation in New; Zealand, yet it went, and no better reason has ever been given than that some v military persons objected 'to uniformed boys being under the control of the Education Department, and to teachers who < made ho :■" great ; pretensions to military , i-;knowledge > being : ranked at captains and lieutenants. It was a foolish decision, taken by people who ought., have known - batter at a time when the universal training movement was just born, and when : civilian^persons were unwilling to say or ;H do anything that might retard the successful establishment of the new military system. It was part of the price New Zealand paid for. the creation of her citizen army* but it was a high price, and should Ibe "paid" back promptly by the reorganisation of the cadets. ■ One. of the most interesting messages yet ; received from a New Zealand soldier on active service was brought from Egypt by the hospital steamer Willochra. In addition to her human freight the steamer brought back a number of transport waggons which had been taken there as part -of the equipment of the New Zealand Members of the Army Service Corps and for which there appears to have been no Jurther use at the front. These waggons on arrival at Wellington were placed along the side of a side street, near the waterfront, and there in the absence of ,=%<:"«*?, convenient housing room, they have .. been since; standing. There is nothing parfcculary interesting about these vehicles generally, unleß 3 perhaps it is the presence 01 a great deal of sand collected from the «gd.ofithe ancient Pharoahs. A close infection of A he waggon, however, revealed gybing of special interest to a resident «Wi nd who Was indulging in a short t daS°ago. the Wellington wharves a ago. .

SSfilS? "**-&?? Particular vehicle in I TOon is scribbled a short simple mes-! :S ll 7| l ! 11 ! ts three brief sentences tells ; - 2°l ho Patience aroused amongst i '" of pur troops by the period of tedi- " getting ? U A n and ihe delav in getting "*? the firing line. The menage for I .„ belleve we're here in Egypt PW %, W Want to SO to the front. Ife««' he name of the writer, ' mSSP* ? the Auckland district, was 2entV ' and , th , e messa « e > which ™* *p--■"Sd PPed 6 ! o ? the waggon as ii was mWMii «. PPed baCk t0 the Dominion, Wmim Tfc CenS^ V and reached its destinB'«,nn Wr [ t€l '' who - Pnsmnablv. has Sit l reached the fronfc will receive fail t«* 6 ex !« en , c of an uncertain |au service and other circumstances pertetlr* letter informing him that his 13 ? S received and that the |P<a! contained in his last two words was V* made m vain. S4& b£rS ? f i : arlial »«"t do not commm use harsh words to people who m? Vo:<;s - , bßt Mr. Hornsbv, M.P. for aft rapa ' as become so indignant with '"' <xJ*T? or .g anisf »tion that has threatWmvk ™, d resistance" to anv of-"r--tia ?! ', . Itl,utai y service compuliorv. - 'Sit*' has flwraiiMy rroker. the , ; „- Snwl7 le -, This » liOW Mr. Hornsby tinn ' ,V d receipt of the anti-conscrip- ■ m resolution. "I„ view of what lias ftK ed "J , c'-rmection with this war, £ «-f Wfd !l>ss " f lif f occasioned the ...j|<s W.ioiigh , unpreparedly, I should - X JJW the voice oi the blighter,' MatSh hn i won ' t fi « hl - and " ho is FiUn *° aUow an abominable Power : <fali«Sp nan3 l , to >*•» possessor of the fitted world, would have been hushed Nara&* 7°- not J' ou miserable people S?^, Wh f k ,t 1S you are tr y' m e to do? « you not understand (are you so asinine Hi, '* grasp?) that you. and such torfT°f' t are , responsible for the greater |||»the blood and tears alreadv shed, tpon h h aVe still to be shed? ' Shame M«Sii!l';^ U " , Confess your wretched and henceforth and for ever your peace."