Commissions and Committees

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21120, 22 March 1934, Page 8

Commissions and Committees

At a meeting in Auckland yesterday Mr Downie Stewart smiled gently at the proceedings of the parliamentary committee which is supposed to be investigating the present monetary system in New Zealand and possible alternatives to that system. And he was entitled to smile, for no official enquiry in this country can ever have collected such a fantastic and utterly worthless body of evidence. Unfortunately, however, the farce has its serious side. The enquiry is costing more money than it is pleasant to think about and is keeping fully occupied two officials who could be much more usefully employed at their normal tasks. Moreover, it is bringing into disrepute a form of investigation which could be of the greatest value to the country. At a meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce the other day the opinion was expressed that there had been enough government commissions and enquiries: and that opinion must be fairly general. Yet it is worth remembering that almost every great social and administrative reform in Great Britain since the beginning of last century has been mapped out beforehand either by a royal commission or by a parliamentary committee. In New Zealand the results of such enquiries have seldom carried much weight either with the government or with the public, and have seldom de-1

| served to carry much weight. The! main reason for this is the pathetic ; belief of most governments that j members of parliament without; special knowledge or training are competent to solve complex problems of finance and administration, i The records of the New Zealand Parliament contain scores of reports | by parliamentary committees which j were not worth the cost of printing. In Great Britain it is usually pos- J sible to find a committee of experts in a House of Commons with more than 600 members. In New Zealand a parliamentary committee is seldom competent to deal with j , any subject requiring technical j 1 knowledge. A small commission of j outside experts is almost invariably j -, more efficient and in the end less . ! expensive. 1 .i