ALL ABOVE BOARD

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 177, 28 July 1944, Page 2

ALL ABOVE BOARD

—— SPENDING BY STATE 1 UNAUTHORISED ITEMS (By Telegraph. —Parliamentary EeportM WELLINGTON, thi s ' dav The power to make expending which has not had the prio ! authority of Parliament has fe! extended by the Finance Bill,| was under consideration In «. i House of Representatives yesterday I The usual limit, stated the MiS'l of Finance. Mr. Nash, was £500(Wi' <' plus £100,000 for the Railway 7' : partment. . : The amendment, he explain would validate last year's unatitw ised expenditure of £1,365,000 Th increase was inevitable in war year. For instance, the Government 1m to pay a subsidy of 2/9, per head C! bobby calves, and it decided to mf ; tribute £10,000 towards the Iri£ Famine Relief Fund. Another Ife> of expenditure which was unautWi ised was the payment of advanceof the wheat subsidy. Mr. Algie (Nat., Remuera): Arnil Ambassadorial furniture. f The Minister: Yes, it might bp I possible to enable the member fat get a seat for longer than tits' years. Details Wanted

The Leader of the Opposition y. 1= Holland, said he was not prepaSP to voteifor unauthorised expenditure Jof about £1,365,000 without details f being given of that expenditure i The Minister of Supply, Mr.'ME van, said what was proposed fop been common practice for years It i was not considered wrong for the P Opposition to adopt the practice 1 when it was in office, but for tbi Labour Government to do so wail evidently wrong. Of the total sua! £100,000 had been used to pay wheat! farmers a little earlier than usual r and £91,772 had been used to speed p up work on the South Island Main I Trunk railway line in order to get! it into a revenue producing state as! soon as possible. For irrigation! water supply and drainage £106 000| had been expended above the vote to I speed up these important works! Medical, hospital and other benefits i under the Social Security Act ac-1 counted for £394,000, and £116®! had been spent from the- Meat'ln.l dustry Account to pay the suhsidvf on bobby calves. There was nothin'»! wrong with any of those items. The?■ were all above board and the Opposition could find out all about them