NEW ZEALAND’S DEFENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6704, 30 December 1908, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND’S DEFENCE

The military contributor, whose article appears in another column this morning, may have some special knowledge which qualifies him to pass so unre. : served a verdict on the work of the 'Council of Defence. Wo do not know the evidence on which he does this, but we do know that a not inconsiderable number of people take the opposite view, and with good reason. The jerux of the whole question, however, lis the cost of, what is called our “defence system.’ 1 The term is ludicrous, ‘of course, but may be allowed to pass. The sum voted by Parliament this year to defray the expenses of the Department of Defence was £214,470. That is a lot of money. It means £4124 per y. cek—£sß9 per day. It is not worth it, and despite the eulogy of our contributor we incline to the opinion that the Council of Defence and all its works and everything allied with it requires overhauling. When wo say that the expenditure of £589 is “not worth it” we mean that the results from this expenditure are not commensurate with its volume. For ;a sum approaching a quarter of a jmillion a year wo should get something better. It is to say that the land defences of this country are 'adequate to meet sudden emergency. ;If that be so we are throwing £589 , a jday into a bottomless pit—wasting the taxpayers money to the extent of nearly a million Stirling every four years ‘■on something that is a wicked delusion. There is a very strong suspicion, in which this paper joins, that [there is a considerable amount of mohey frittered away on superfluities land useless officials in connection | with defence. The tendency towards parasitism is always strong in an ■organisation of this kind, and its growth requires constant check by a strong hand. However, the point we desire to make is that if the expenditure on defence that was real amounted to half a million a year it would bo a legitimate charge on the taxpayers, but an expenditure on something that oVeryon© believes is useless is unjustifiable.