QUESTIONS IN HOUSE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 257, 17 August 1950, Page 6

QUESTIONS IN HOUSE

MINISTER’S REPLY VARIETY OF SUBJECTS

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 16. Ministers presented; replies to a number of questions in the House of Representatives to-day. The Minister in charge of HousingConstruction (Mr W. S. Goosman) told Mr C. L. Carr (Opposition, Timaru) that the whole question of housing for public servants, especially those subject to transfer, was being considered by a Cabinet sub-committee. Its report should be available soon.

Car Imports The Minister of Customs (Mr C. M., Bowden) told Mr T. H. McCombs (Opposition, Lyttelton) that the issue of “no remittance” licences for car imports was designed to increase the total number of cars reaching New Zealand and should not result in prospective purchasers of normally imported cars having to stand down in favour of those with free sterling funds available. Prosecutions would be taken if any black-market transactions were revealed.

Prefabricated Houses - After careful consideration the Government has decided not to import prefabricated houses. This reply was given by the Minister in charge, of Housing Construction. (Mr W. S. Goosman) to Mr M. Moohan (Opposition, Betone). The foundation work and a large amo.unt of the sub-contractors’ wdrk on essential services had to be done in New Zealand, said Mr Goosman. There was limited labour for this, and it was in this work rather than in the erection of the house shell itself that most of the delays occurred. It was therefore considered that the import of prefabricated houses would result in little improvement in the number of completed dwellings. It was also estimated that the cost of imported houses was greater than that of houses with similar accommodation and equal area erected in the normal manner with materials available in New Zealand. Recent information from Australia supported this view. “The question of licences to import prefabricated houses is, of course, a matter for my colleague the Minister of Customs, and is at present engaging his attention,” said Mr Goosman. Milk Boards The Minister of Marketing (Mr K. J. Holyoake), replying to Mr .C. L. Carr (Opposition, Timaru), said that it was not the policy of the Government to- hand over metropolitan milk boards to private enterprise, as such boards were the local bodies for the milk districts. Pharmaceutical Benefits The Minister of Social Security (Mr J. T. Watts), replying to Mr W. A. Hudson (Opposition, Mornington), said that the practice of checking on chemists’ claims for medicines * supplied to patients under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme was not new. Checks had been carried out periodically since those benefits were introduced. Such inquiries were relatively few, hut the results already obtained clearly demonstrated that some mea sure of checking was fully warranted. Mr Hudson had asked if visits by health inspectors to sick persons to check on the source of supply and quantity of medicine received through a doctor's prescription would be discontinued. Mr Watts said that it had been found necessary in some cases to make such checks to determine whether a chemist’s claim was a proper charge on the Social Security Fund. The assistance of patients was enlisted, but inquirieswere of a simple nature which should occasion no worry. If a patient did not wish to supply information the inquiry was not pressed.