ECONOMY AXE IN AUSTRALIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18541, 11 April 1930, Page 9

ECONOMY AXE IN AUSTRALIA.

Defence Vote Reduced. BIG SAVINGS ANTICIPATED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) CANBERRA, April 10. The Government has decided to cut next year’s defence estimates by at least £500.000. It is claimed that the Department is run too extravagantly, and big savings can be effected without affecting the' personnel. The Government will reduce the estimated expenditure on the Air Force by one-fifth, and it is admitted that the dismissal of one-third of the officers and men is imminent. Pruning Knife. A reduction scheme involving retrenchment in air, land and sea services is to be effected. Randwick Experimental Air Station is to close and Wing-Commander Wackett and some of the staff are to be transferred to Cockatoo Island. A repair shop for a seaplane, the first in Australia, is to be established on the island. Such of the machinery now at Randwick is to be taken over by the Defence Department for other uses. This move is the beginning of drastic retrenchment in the Defence Service. It will particularly affect the clerical staff. Wholesale dismissals are expected, but will be extended over a long period. Transfer of the Royal Military College from Duntroon to the site of the Naval College, at Jervis Bay will take place very shortly. There will be big reductions in the staff of both institutions.