H.—190

7

Administrative appointments have often gone to combatant officers, and it would seem that when certain offices were to be filled a man was chosen more because of his military rank than because of his knowledge of and fitness for the duties required to be performed. But there is a vast difference between a successful combatant and a successful administrative officer, and the former might lose a fine reputation if misfitted into the latter. Scornful derision would greet the appointment of a Paymaster, no matter how skilled, in financial intricacies, to direct troops in the field ; but the selection of a training officer to command the Army Pay Corps would, until recently anyhow, have excited no unfavourable comment in the Army. The Director of Movements and Quartering, for some reason, not clear, seems to have drifted into the position of Assistant Quartermaster-General. This officer, on being asked " Have you ever offered bonuses or other inducements to men. to make suggestions for the betterment or simplification of your system, or are men promoted as a reward for good suggestions ? " answered, " I understand this question has been considered by the Chief of the General Staff, but deemed inadvisable. 1 concur. It is the duty of an officer to give of his best, and rewards come by promotion for good work." We did not insist upon proof of that statement. It is not surprising to find an officer giving such an answer valiantly defending his own rebuking of his subordinate in the Auckland District for spending Bs. 6d. to stop a bath leaking, without previous authority ; or that he should write (only in January of this year) to the same subordinate, who had asked the, Public Works Department to carry out, as a matter of urgency, repairs to a water-closet at a, cost of a few shillings, " With reference to your memo, of 17th January, please note that in all matters of this description a report must accompany application for authority. The question of responsibility must be gone into and settled before repairs at the expense of the public can be carried, out." And all this over an expenditure of less than £.1 to prevent a serious leakage on account of the disrepair of a closet! The same officer was asked, "Do you make an index of instructions issued to districts, and, if so, do you send regularly a copy of the index to each district ? " The answer was, " This is a matter of general, departmental policy, and I am not aware of any direction that such an index should be supplied to districts by branches of the Department, or of its being done." (The italics are ours.) There is evidence of over-centralization at General Headquarters. It may arise from an excessive desire on the part of General Headquarters to retain too full powers and to attend to details which would be more safely and wisely left to subordinates ; or from having to give attention to detail, which may be the result of inefficiency and want of initiative on the part of subordinate officers ; or probably it is the result of the absence of the co-ordination of the various branches in Wellington, and in the districts, and from failure to make subordinate officers thoroughly understand, their powers and duties. A witness succinctly put it thus : : ' Branches are apt to regard themselves as watertight compartments. If not checked, the Defence organization, will be akin to a loose confederation of small States, each exercising sovereign powers. At present there is some danger of different decisions and conflicting opinions being conveyed to the Minister and to the, public. The policy should be to encourage initiative, decentralize responsibility, centralize control, and. to repress the tendency of officers to increase the work of their branch without due consideration as to whether such work is really necessary." The tendency of General Headquarters to interfere in details respecting camps and districts relieves the officers in charge, men of high rank, enjoying generous remuneration, from responsibility, and discourages them from initiative. We met many intelligent and capable officers in districts and camps who were quite qualified and prepared to carry much, more responsibility than is permitted to them at present, and who would rise to the occasion if the opportunity were afforded them. An officer having full and intimate knowledge of camps should be at General Headquarters, and the staff of the latter should as far as possible be exchanged with, men in camps and districts. Headquarters deal with papers ; camps deal with men. The scientific branches of military service—Engineering and Artillery—probably suffer in the absence of any separate officer on the Headquarters Staff with an expert knowledge of these services.