"EFFORT TO MISLEAD"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 182, 3 August 1944, Page 2

"EFFORT TO MISLEAD"

OPPOSITION CHARGED SPENDING BY GOVERNMENT (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, this day. An assertion that members of the Opposition had been trying to .mislead the country by suggesting that the Government had been spending money unlawfully was made by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, speaking in reply to the second reading debate on the Finance Bill in the House of Representatives last evening. He itemised various sums which had been expended above the prescribed statutory limit and contended that no member of the House would have waited for the authority of the House before making such payments. Mr. Nash said he did not think anything was worse than the way the Opposition had tried to discredit his actions and take away his character by suggesting he was "a slick, clever and tricky customer." He contended that the Opposition had endeavoured very cleverly to mislead the country, and by their statements would suggest that the Government was spending money illegally and unlawfully. The Minister detailed the larger amounts concerned as follows: Wheat industry, £100,000; speeding up work on the South Island Main Trunk, £90,000; purchase of the site for the Manners Street post office, Wellington, £38,000; transfer of women's Borstal institution, Wellington, £76,000; Social Security hospital and medical benefits, £394,000; purchasing and operating new State coal mines, £135,000; bobby calf subsidy, £116,232.