Fool’s errand—M.P.
PA Wellington Government officials spent $l6OO on a “fool’s errand” to see a man in the Chatham Islands when a $1.98 telephone call would have told them he was not there.
The story of the wasted flight came from the Labour member for Sydenham (Mr N. J. Kirk) in Parliament yesterday. He said that tour landpurchase officers of the Ministry of Worxs flew in a Navaho aircraft to the Chatham Islands to see a man about lana for the new airport on the islands.
The flight would have cos: $l6OO, said Mr Kirk.
But when the officials arrived', they found the man they had gone to see was back on the mainland. For $1.98, the cost of a full-rate telephone call, they could have discovered he was not there and saved the $l6OO, said Mr Kirk during the debate on Supplementary Estimates.
The trip was a “fool’s errand” to shore up tne seat for the National member for Lyttelton, Miss C. E. Dewe, Mr Kirk said.
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Press, 21 September 1978, Page 6
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168Fool’s errand—M.P. Press, 21 September 1978, Page 6
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