DENTAL BURSARY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 237, 6 October 1945, Page 7

DENTAL BURSARY

EX-DEFAULTER'S RELEASE EXPLANATION OP PROCEDURE Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, this day. As a protest the granting of a dental bursary to a military defaulter, Mr. Sutherland (Nat., Hauraki), in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, moved to reduce the vote of the Health Department by £4. "As an indication that the House requires that all papers in connection with the bursary granted to the military defaulter be laid upon the table of the House.". The amendment was lost by 36 votes to 31. Before the vote was taken, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, in a further explanation, said . the man concerned was released from the Army in March, 1943. The Army gave its authority for release on receipt of a telephone message in the ordinary way from the Director of National Service, asking for the man's release to take up the bursary. When the matter was discussed in the House last October it was found that the Army had never had a proper application for the man's release other than the original telephone message, and so asked for a letter from the Director of National Service confirming the telephone request made in 1943. That was the explanation of the letter to which reference had been made by Mr. Bodkin (Nat., Central Otago). It was written simply to place on the Army file written confirmation of the telephone request.