The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News Morning News The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1938. A QUEER "INQUIRY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 85, 11 April 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1938. A QUEER "INQUIRY."

For the cause that tacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, Snd the good that we omn da.

| Two inquiries by Parliamentary Committees are proceeding in Wellington. In one, evidence is being given concerning the Education Amendment Bill, which was introduced last session so that it might be considered by interested parties and the public. The Bill, having been professionally drafted, is reasonably clear, and provides a firm basis for appreciation, suggestion and criticism. But the Select Committee on National Health and State Superannuation, and its witnesses, are not in such an advantageous position. The committee lias been set up to examine the Government s proposals, which were submitted to it in the form of a summary statement that 'obviously requires much elaboration and elucidation. But—though the committee has sat on four days—elaboration and elucidation are still lacking, with the result that witnesses appearing before the committee are asking questions and being accused of "crossexamining the committee." It is difficult to see how, in the circumstances, they could do anything else. The Prime Minister, whose zeal seems to outrun his patience, wants quick results. He has objected to one prospective witness' requiring 10 days to prepare evidence. Under these conditions the committee, which has a strong Government majority, may be able to reach a quick decision, but is it likely to be a wise one?

The committee was informed, at the outset, that no actuarial report on the Government's proposals was ready, but it- would be available later. Without that report the committee, and many of its witnesses, are working in the dark. No Government spokesman lias been called to fill in many of the obvious blanks in the official summary. One of the two Government officials cahed, the Commissioner of Pensions, was not able to furnish an authoritative estimate of the number of pensions likely to be drawn as soon as the system is in operation, and in his [Statement comparing present conditions with future conditions he had to write "not stated" jin several places. For this, of course, the .official could not be blamed. He—like the .committee, the committee's witnesses and the general public—is short of information about jthe Government's proposals, or has had insufficient time to consider them.

The present situation of the committee seems the more remarkable when it is recalled that last year a great deal of evidence was heard, and consideration was given by Government committees to at least some aspects of health insurance and superannuation. A report was submitted to the Government by Mr. S. H. Maddex. So much is obscure in the Government's present proposals, so much is unexplained, that the public should know what other schemes the Government considered and rejected, and why it (or the Labour Caucus) rejected them. Although this is "election year," it should be emphasised that the Government's object should not be to frame and pass a Bill that will be politically useful, but so to establish a system that in, say, 40 years, it will not have required any structural change.