The Waipawa Mail. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1917. CURRENT TOPICS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7914, 4 August 1917, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1917. CURRENT TOPICS.

The Budget. A few years ago the tabling of the Budget in the House of Representatives was regarded as one of the most momentous events of the year’s Parliamentary activities, and rumors of any possible change in the incidence of taxation or alteration of the Customs tariff set the whole population on the qui vive. A surplus was a novelty. A suggested loan of a million pounds was regarded with distrust, a reckless spendthrift, policy. What a change has come o’er the scene. This year’s Budget, the most important that has ever been delivered in the Dominion, is'dwarfed in comparison I(» the big happenings which the war lias brought about. Where we were accustomed to think in hundreds we now calmly assimilate thousands, and a Budget proposing a loan of twenty-four million pounds is accepted with a philosophical spirit. A great change, too,, is foreshadowed in the incidence of taxation, but even that is not sufficient to stir one’s pulse. This is the day of big things.

The War Loan. “Disaster to this loan means disaster to the Dominion.” These significant words were uttered by Sir Joseph Ward at the close of his speech on the second reading of the Loan Bill, and they convey a wealth of meaning to those whose means will enable them to subscribe to the loan. But it is somewhat difficult to follow Sir Joseph Ward in his reasoning concerning the conscription of wealth. He declared that the conscription of wealth as suggested in the debate was nothing short of robbery. If that is so what about the conscription of men? Why should a mother 'be;compelled to send her only son to fight for those who prefer to stay at home and

hoard up wealth ? Who is the greatest sufferer—the woman who gives her only son for the Empire or the man who loses his money by conscription? We are out to win the war, whatever the cost, but let the cost be distributed as evenly as possible.

Vice-Admiral Koltchak. It was announced the other day that Vice-Admiral Koltchak, of the Russian Navy, ha[d accepted a high command in the American fleet. In this connection it is timely to recall that it was reported last month that Vice-Admiral Kolchak was to be replaced in command of the Black Sec Fleet by Admiral Dukin, as the result of a lively agitation at Sebastopol,, where meetings of sailors indicated that Koltchak was a supporter of the old regime. Vice-Admiral A. V. Koltchak is the youngest admiral in the world. He was appointed to the command of the Black Sea Fleet towards the end of last year. He is only 43. That is extraordinarily young for an admiral (says an exchange); even Sir David Beatty, who is the second youngest British admiral, is 54, and Admiral Halsey, late of the New Zealand, the youngest, is 53. ViceAdmiral Koltchak entered the Russian Navy in 1891, when he was 17, years old, and he has seen 25 years’ service. Three years later he was no longer the equivalent of a middy, and in 1903 he won a great deal of credit for his organisation and leadership of an Arctic relief expedition, during which he explored the ice of the Kara Sea and a great part of the Arctic Ocean. He followed this by winning a series of military distinctions during the Russo-Japanese war, in which he shared in the defence of Port Arthur. From 1900 to 1912 he worked on the new Naval General Staff, and played an active part in the reorganisation of the Russian Navy, though this work was interrupted for a while by a sea command. During the two years immediately before the war he commanded successively two torpedo boats. • During this war he has won more distinctions, and in April of last year was promoted to rear-admiral and confirmed in a high independent command in the Baltic. Only two months later he was made vice-admiral and appointed to the Black Sea command.