Controversial Pamphlet

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 14

Controversial Pamphlet

(Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 16. Responsibility for a pamphlet sent to railway workers during the disagreement on the amendment of the Railways Act last year was the subject of questions by the Opposition during the discussion on Labour Department estimates in Parliament today.

After many points of order had been raised for the Chairman of Committees (Mr R. E. Jack) to resolve, the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) replied that although the pamphlet on State services pay bore his title as Minister of Labour, it was entirely a State Services Commission matter on which he was acting. The pamphlet had been printed and published at private expense and distributed by the National Party. Mr N. V. Douglas (Opposition, Auckland Central) raised the question. On the estimate for departmental salaries, Mr Douglas said he would like to ask about the chart sent to Government servants and the claim by the Prime Minister that it was the work of the Government Statistician.

Mr Douglas said he had doubted whether the chart was the work of the Government Statistician and Mr Shand had later said it was not entirely.

The Government Statistician wrote to Mr Shand after the Railways Act had been

amended, and sent copies to members of Parliament, saying that a true comparison of W’ages which was sought for the chart was not possible on the information available Mr Jack ruled that the question was not related to an item in the Estimates, but Mr W. A. Fox (Opposition, Miramar) suggested that the Government Statistician’s time had been involved.

Mr N. E. Kirk (Opposition, Lyttelton) said the document had been posted in railway workshops by departmental officials and that it must have been an official document as it bore no printer's impression, only the title of the Minister of Labour. "How much was voted from the Labour Department to the Department of Statistics for the preparation of the document?” Mr Douglas asked.

On a point of order, Mr S A. Whitehead (Opposition, Nelson* claimed that the issue could properly be discussed under the Labour Department item in the estimates for “advertising, print-

ing and sundry expenses, part recoverable.” “How much have we recovered and from whom was it recovered?” Mr Douglas asked when this point was allowed. The Minister of Transport (Mr McAlpine) then protested that this item was, in fact, listed under the heading of “Immigration.” Mr Douglas: Can I go to the item on page 145 “Printing and Stationery?” Was it tlie Department of Labour that was able to recover costs for preparing this document? Mr Shand replied that an arrangement had been made by the National Party to deliver the document to Government offices. “It was my intention to see that railway men had the other side of the case before they were pushed into a decision that would lose them a day’s pay. A number of officers did distribute the pamphlets in Government time. A number of pamphlets hostile to the Government were distributed at the same time in the same way.”