NATIVE AFFAIRS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 18, 21 July 1934, Page 7

NATIVE AFFAIRS

ROYAL COMMISSION

PIML -SITTING

ADDRESS BY COUNSEL

THE MINISTER'S LETTERS

'rue Kative Affairs Royal Commission concluded its public sittings yesterday afternoon at 3 conclusion of tUe address of Mr. &. P. Finlay, counsel for tha Native race. . The Commission will now consider its report, which will be presented to the Government in due course. Mr. Justice Smith presided, and as- *., sociated; with him were the Hon. J. ' Alexander, M.L.C., and Messrs. D. G. Johnston and. L. W. Nelson. Mr.. B. H. Quilliani appeared. under instructions from the Government to assist the Commission. Summarising the Maori land develop- " mont- work, Mr. Finlay said that the net expenditure to March 31, 1934, was £.326,815^-and the total area developed was 117,429 acres. The number of units, not including stations or partly- . developed ar,eas,was .1124, and it was estimated that the population that was being supported was 3453 adults and 4657 minors, a total of 8110. There was a .total of 31,140 dairy cattle, 52,567 sheep, and 5967 run cattle. Ho r.:binitted that he. had answered "the complaints that the scheme had not accomplished .what it should have accomplished,- and that the development : had been carried out at an exaggerat- ' ed pricp. _; He claimed that a great deal ; had'tjeeri "accomplished from the cbm- ; mercial and humanistic points of view. i "■ O;;.,;':;"MBCHA]!rccAL." • ■' ''. '';■ '" ■ ; .iThe:importance; of'tlie'Audit reports,* heisuhmitted, was entirely mechanical. > They did not touch the virtue of the ;.. scheme _in wayas a scheme, but ■ they i did- atteet the personnel of ;tHe ;■• Departments' dn relation to "the wort i that 'was done. Tie reports affected two different organisations in' the' De. partment: ther'h.ead ofß.ce and. district' : offices. "As far as head office was concerned, ithere.was nothing in the re- ' ports, or, anywhere -else, against the' .; actual work that 4 was done there. Thei only possible point "of view from which I criticism could be directed. at head office was by the suggestion that head ', office was in some^.way respbnsible,..f or :; the''failure, to organise properly, and to ■ see that there was proper organisation in the offices in the districts. '■■ '■ ■• ; ,; The attached to the reports by the different Departments and the officers was difficult to estimate. The man who could estimate the real - importance of the complaints was t^ie head of the Audit Department himself, Colpnel who had. summarised his view, in; hisl 'statement to ,the r.C6mTnission.;/."lt' was known that the Audit reports iff many instances were much , exaggerated, and it was significant that no auditor haii' ,any - criticism at all against \any office o'rrofficer,in respect of ;dealing's between' the 'Department and fhe^init. ' The whole trouble was between the Department itself and the development schemes. Much of the criticism; j'had been" directed on an erroneous'assumption of facts. " . Dealing;-with the ordering of stores, and parjgjjularly those relating to Mr. Mitchellj said ■ that there could not hav^been' airy actual prevision of what wag,: actually required. He did suggest tfijiat, judged from the standard of common sense, the supplementing of the purejase of stores from the local market was the sort of thing'that one would expect to find. He said^that the use of blank wage vouchers /tad been exaggerated beyond all reason, and, it had been ultimately \ stated that the practice had extended only to the first two contracts. There had been?no Teal harm of any kind,'as ■'■ they were.- appropriation accounts and not wage.payments; The Natives had no money^and they used the Arawa Trust Bosiid to make the advances, because the! Government system was not ; sufficiently flexible. For the rest, how little there; was in any of it. "LITTLE MORE" HECTIC." The second report, said Mr. Finlay, had begun to get a little bit more hectic. £Jje contended that if supervisors were tied hand and foot by regulations aiid rules it was not possible to "get from them the quality of work they would produce if representing private '0. wners or /buying for themselves. --2 .'.' . -. . Dealing'with staffing, he said that the staff had .been, subject to .an inspection by Mr. Pearce, as representing the Pub- . lie Service Commissioner, some time prior- to-July,. 1933, and Mr. Pearce had recommended the granting of an accountant, provided accounts of a certain form were kept. Was it surprising when that was his view, with his knowledge, that the head office and the Department and the Minister were not conscious of any "very serious under- ■ staffing at Rotorua? If that was the case, why the condemnation that the : Native Minister must accept responsibility? At that time, the Economy — Committee had made certain reeommenv dations about staffing, and that report iv was made after the schemes had been put into operation and after Mr. Pearce '.:., and Mr. Taylor-had been through the : !• district and, had acquired a personal >i, knowledge on the spot. If there was : too much work in the Botorna-" office, whose responsibility was that 1 Every ";»• report went to the Treasury, and it was the Treasury's business to say that the i_ accounts of Government. Departments j , were properly kept. ; His Honour referred to the fact that ', }n the Rotorua district a Minister had been'dealing-'direct with local officers "'. and communicating in a way in which ;, the Rotorua office, and officers, and .7 head office knew nothing. ; Mr. Finlay: That has been said over ■ and over again, and I challenge it. ; His Honour: ■ I want you to meet it. ■r MINISTER'S y£ET,IEE. . \ Mr. Finlay said that where the Mm;- --; ister was writing letters to individuals : on development, the Minister never gave any direction to Mr. Mitchell to ■ incur any liability, except when it - was through head office. They, were letters either inspiring one to further ' efforts, or letters in which the Minister ; discussed matters of moment in respect • of future transactions. His Honour said ' that if cpntracts had gone through head office there ; . would have been some check. What .'■■ justification had-the Commission for, thinking that the money was properly spent?'. ..' ' . - Mr.'Firilay: The work is there. ' "I don't know that it is," said his Honour. He suggested that, prima facie, the system was wrong. "I. don't think it was," replied Mr. Finlay. He said that it would never ; enter the mind of the Minister that he was responsible for the establishment ■ of any system in Ms office. Ho sub- •". mitted that the Minister was entitled •., to rely on his staff to do the administrative work. His Honour referred to the land'purchases, many of which, he said, were not satisfactory. : ''A BIT QUERULOUS.' 1 ; Miv,:Pinlay suggested. that the Commission was; looking at the matters too much'from the office point of view. ' "I do-suggest," ho said, "that a great

many of these queries and charges made against individuals are made from the. point of view ox post facto, and are just a bit querulous because every material step was not put on record." Had the Minister kept a diary, and put everything on record, no doubt the Commission would have been satisfied. "Here was a man who was endeavouring to do too much," ho said. "Ho was inspiring his staff . . . buying land, and all in the interests of the success of the scheme. Surely the Commission must weigh all considerations against the success achieved."

• .His Honour: We may weigh, arrive at the fact that the Minister was responsible, and still weigh' all thoae mattors.

Mr. Finlay said that the real difficulty at Botorua was that the capacity of the office was under-estimated as a whole. So many of the ■ complaints' were, in fact, lacking in substance. UNEMPLOYMENT ASPECT. Referring to the" unemployment aspect, Mr. Finlay said that there was a lack of appreciation on the part of I the Audit inspectors as to the real basis upon which the Native Department was administering, the funds. The Unemployment Board found the fund was too difficult to administer, and therefore passed on the job to the Native Department. They handed it on absolutely untrammelled by conditions. The Land Settlement -Board had now told the Unemployment Board that it must have a free hand. The Unemployment Board recognised the difficulties of the position. He admitted that the employment of youths to cut thistles was wrong. The Minister was suffering under a misapprehension. He thought youths could be employed, and once having employed them, there was an obligation to pay them for their services. The work, however, was in the public interest. His Honour; To' clean up the road for. the .Governor-General?

Mr. r Finlay: That is so. His Honour: That doesn't alter the fact that secondary school boys should riot be employed on' the job.

Mr. Finlay said that secondary school boys in the present ■ circumstances had need of money to tfotftplete- their education. He admitted at once that it was a mistake, but having made the mistake, he did suggest that there was no' great harm .in ! seeing that the money was paid out, of the Maori fund. v DEPARTMENT'S AUTHORITY. ;: Mr. Johnstoii said that if the Audit "Department complained at' the' manner in which unemployment funds were expended, it seemed reasonable that Audit should have been told that the Native Department had: a general authority to spend the money -at-its- discretion. So far v as he could see,.the Native.Department had never answered the, point.

His Honour: The Native Department must have known about Audit's complaints.' > ; ;, V. ; .•;-"■' '" Mr. Finlay said'that he could not explain why the Public Service Commis-, sioner and-Treasury-did not. do something about the reports. If two others were responsible, then too much could not be said about a third.

Mr. Johnston: I don't knowwhether one. was not the cause of it.

Mr. Finlay • As the report goes on the floor of the House, something will bo .said ;about( it (there.Regarding the supply of seed, Mr. Finlay said that 'areas ' were being ploughed, and there seemed no reasonable justification for criticising the assembly of fSßed in anticipation of amounts' needed. Regarding manures, the supervisors had budgeted for a certain definite quantity, though it was true that a mistake had been made in ■the calculations. .;.'••;

- Mr. :Quilliam: I,am informed that there were no estimates.

His Honour: Then'lhere were no estima'tes?^ >■ ■.'-' :<■}] ' ■. ■-

1 Mr. Finlay; I want an opportunity of producing, them. :ti , Mr. Finlay said;,that it was purely a matter of Government policy whether pumice lands, as represented by'Horohoro, should be developed, and it was a matter of Cabinet;policy .as to the rate at which they should be developed, nor could the responsibility of it- be loaded on the Natiye Minister. If the work had been stopped for a survey, as had been suggested,. the Nativ.es would have starved.. , stock purchases: Answering criticism, regarding stock purchases, Mr. Finlay said that in all the travels of the Commission only two purchases of stock had been questioned; the Wright purchases, for which no one could.be held-to blame, and the Wilson purchases of bulls. The latter was-a case where">attention had been concentrated on the' bad to the exclusion of the good. •'.'■. Mr. Johnston:' There were more than the bulls. ' . - . /;,. Mr. Finlay said that the Minister admitted that it was bad policy,, but the fact remained that it did produeo good stock at a reasonable price. The discoveries that Audit made were not ap- ] parent to .the"men,.who were dealing with stock and who knew the market value of it, which lent colour to the fact that,' apart from the bulls, Wilson got stock for apparently below what it could be bought for. in the local market.' The- fact that there was a total absence of complaint, except for the bulls, indicated that there was something in .Wilson's story that he could get gooa quality stock below what other people could get it for, and. the evidence would show that that stock was well bought. ■ ".. . -Mr,-Finlay said that h;e did; not propose to discuss land purchases in detail. . - ... ■ . V : MAORI PURPOSES FUND, . Regarding the .Maori Purposes Fund, he said that it was true that the Government had contributed £15,000, but in the bulk the money was Maori money and the Maori members of Parliament claimed that they had the right to handle it in the best interests of tho Natives. "Most of the payments had been made in an attempt to establish the schemes on a good basis: tho use of motor-cars, transport/of visitors to the football match, were all part of tho -campaign to inspiro the Natives with a desire to embark on the scheme, have confidence in the Minister and the Department, and, above all, secure unanimity necessary before the scheme was a success. These were things that must be done for the Maoris in the Maori way. Dealing with-the Native Minister's position on the East Coast, Mr. Finlay said that he submitted that thorc was "nothing in it." As a prominent figure in the East Coast district the Natives had identified the Minister with a largo number of the blocks, but most of them were dead blocks. If that criticism were maintained, it would amount to this: . that no prominent Maori could ever be Native Minister or hold a place in the Government.. "Boiled down, that is what that comes t xo," concluded Mr. Finlay. His Honour thanked counsel and Government officers for the assistance they had given, and said that the Commission would consider its report.

The Commission adjourned sine die.