WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1916, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE MAROONED EXPLORERS}. (From Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington. Nov.'fi. Sir Ernest Shackleton'* friends will not be surprised to learn from cablegrams published to-day that the famous explorer is coming to New Zealand, dospite the announcement that the British. Australian, and New Zealand Governments have appointed Captain J. K. Davis to command the Aurora on her impending voyage to the Ross Sea. There may be. difficult, and dangerous work to be (lone before the marooned men on the Ross Sea coast are rescued, and Sir Ernest -Shackleton is still leader of his own expedition, though the Governments have spent a large sum of money on the repair and equipment of his ship, in readiness for the journey. There appears to be an impression in some quarters that the Aurora has merely to proceed to the Ross Sea -and pick up the waiting l explorers. But, as a matter of fact, the relief party may be required to push far into the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, and Sir Ernest Shackleton obviously is the right man to command a sledging expedition of that character. He is qualified preeminently and by experience and by temperament for such a task;. THEIR POSITION. The situation of the explorer* whose rescue is being planned may not be generally understood. These men have had no communication from the outside world for two years. It was early in May of last year that the Aurora was swept out of McMurdo Sound by a" gale, to drift about the Ross Sea locked in the 'ice for many months, before making iher escape and proceeding to Port Chalmers. The men who were left ashore are ignorant of the fate of the Aurora, and they can know nothing ,-of the loss of the Endeavour in tlie Weddell Sea, and the failure of Sit Ernest Shackleton to get started on his 1800mile journey across the Antarctic Con- | tinent. They doubtless will feel it { their duty, whatever their own difficulties may have been, to push southward this summer to meet Sir Ernest i Shackleton, who expected' to require i assistance over the concluding stages of his journey. It is likely, therefore, that even if all has gone well with, the ' explorers so far, some of them will be away in the interior when the Aurora arrives, and a party will have to proceed after them, if all has not gone well, a possibility that has to be faced, then the relief party may have to undertake a search for the missing men, who could not be left behind if there remained, any chance at all of discovering their fate. '" WELLINGTON RENTS. "T have gone after several houses in Wellington, and .people have asked me how I thought I could get a house when I have a family of young children," writes a mother to one of the Wellington newspapers. "I was told that no one would give a four-roomed cottage for £1 a week if there were children in the family." This case, it is to be feared, is not exceptional. The housing problem in Wellington is extraordinarily and the authorities, municipal and State, have no practical proposals for solving it. When a house does fall empty, the landlord very often stipulates "no children,'' apparently with the idea that his property will be saved from some wear and tear if young hands and feet are kept out of it. Perhaps it is scarcely fair to ask the landlords to look at the question from a national standpoint, Jfut it is strange that the public authorities fail to show any keen appreciation of the gravity of the 'position. The common explanation of the shortage of houses is that Wellington lacks land for building purposes, but, as a matter of fact, the city has abundant unoccunied land within easy reach of the tramway «ysteli. The real trouble is that the land is exceedingly dear, much of it being held firmly, in' expectation of fancy prices as the pressure increases, and that building is correspondingly expensive. These conditions maintain the shortage of houses, and so rents are kept high. Then tenants are forced to sub-let portions of their dwellings in order to make ends meet, and congestion follows naturally. The other day a Wellington landlord excused his high rents by stating that most of his tenants shared their houses with other families, and so would live too cheaply it he did not push up the rents! '" THE PUBLIC SERVICE. "Is inefficiency a ground for dismissal in the New Zealand Public Service?" was a question put to an authority the other day. The answer was definitely in the negative. The Public Service Act provides that an officer of the Public Service may be dismissed or otherwise punished for inefficiency in the performance of his duties if "such inefficiency or incompetency arises from caii.-I'.s within 'his own control." That is to say, inefficiency is an offence if it is due to, say, carelessness or drunkenness; but if the man simply lacks the ability or the qualifications for the effective performance of his dutie.*, he will not be "fired.'' Ire may be transferred to another position, but in that cast bis salary and status must ni.t be re d.iced except by direction of the Tublk Service Commissioners, who may nol act merely on the expressed opinion ol the head of the Department concerned The Commissioners have wide powers but if they dismiss or reduce a civil ser vant he has the right to demand an in quiry, and then to appeal. This means in practice, that the man will hold hi> position unless his inefficiency is so pro nsunced and so obviously hi* own fault that the head of his Department car produce evidence sufficiently strong tc brand him as an incompetent, and probably wreck his future prospects. The problem of how to secure a high standard of efficiency in the 'Public Service obviously v. as not solved when the Coin- , missioners were given control of appointments and promotions.