POLITICAL NOTES

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20002, 9 August 1930, Page 14

POLITICAL NOTES

[THS PRESS Speclii Service.] WELLINGTON, Angnst 8. Work of Committees. With the rush of work promised during the coming fortnight members of Select Committees will find their time fully occupied in attending in the House as well as dealing with Committee business in the mornings. The question was raised by the Leader of the Opposition the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, when the House adjourned > to-day. He asked the Prime Minister if he would agree to suspend the sittings of Committees for a fortnight in view of the strain of work that members would be called upon to bear in the House. The Prime Minister said the question was one for the Committees themselves. < Mr C. H. Clinkard (U., Rotorua): Witnesses have been summoned to appear in some cases. Mr Forbes added that he would leave the question to the Committees. •If they found they were too jaded they could postpone the sittings. A Question of Conduct. The need for rectitude in the private lives of Civil servants was urged in the House of Representatives by Mr W. L. Martin (Lab., Raglan) when speaking in the financial debate to-day. Mr Martin said half a dozen officers of the Post and Telegraph Department at Auckland had recently been dismissed. He held no brief for any officer who divulged information, although he believed the penalty meted out was too severe. However, what he wished to draw attention to was the faet that heads of Departments could be drunk in motor-cars and brought before the Courts without incurring that penalty. In addition it had been found that local bodies had been defrauded because those brought to Court did not have drivers' licenses.