NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1916, Page 5

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

A LOCAL WAS LOAN. BANKING RETURNS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, April 10. The Minister of Finance is not easily drawn on the subject of a war loan, and at present there is no definite indication that he has changed his previously expressed opinion t/hat a local loan would not be desirable. But the agitation in favor of a "self-reliant policy" grows in strength. Mahy people noted a passage in Mr. McKenna's Budget speech, mentioning gratefully the action of .a certain Dominion in assuming a share of its own financial responsibility, and so relieving the Mother Country. The reference was to Australia, which has raised local' war loans with complete success. The Dunedin Patriotic Association has urged the Government to borrow locally and so relieve the Mother Country from the necessity of lending the Dominion money for war purposes. Apart from the patriotic phase of the subject, there is a consideration of intimate concern to the banks and financial institutions of New Zealand.

The banking returns for May of last year showed the excess of deposits over advances to he £3,088,877.' This amount had grown to £7,540,000 by the end of March, 1916. In other words, the banks have money in need of investment, arid one gathers that they arc experiencing real difficulty in discovericg investments of a suitable kind. They would welcome a chance to place a very large sum of money in the hands of the Government on loan for war purposes. The Minister of Finance has emphasised that the Dominion inusi be prepared to do without British money for many years after the war, since Britain will have very little to spare, and he may feel that it would be in the interests of the Dominion to conserve the local resources for the future. But the advocates of the war loan ale not eontent with this argument. They ask why New Zealand should not bear her fair share of the burdens of war, even if it does prove heavy.

THE QUESTION OF COMMISSIONS. In the course of a letter to the Minister for Defence .(Hon. J. Allen), General Godley mentions that lie thinks the allocation of commissions, ae between the drafts from the training camps and the troops already- at the front, has now been placed upon a fair basis. Fifty per cent, of the vacancies caused through casualties or wastage are filled by the promotion of experienced non-commis-sioned officers or men at the front, and in addition some commissions with the reinforcements are granted to returned soldiers.

It has been the practice of the Defence Department for some time past to send vt'vv '-w senior officers with the reinfm- '• •' 'it . The authorities endeavo. . j> the avenues of promotion w men who have distin-

guished i,.. .•.laolves under service conditions, and to this end send very few officers above the rank of lieutenant. The troops aboard a transport which left recently were under the command of a lieutenant, with temporary rank of captain.