Ministry’s ‘unusual’ help over land loan

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 2

Ministry’s ‘unusual’ help over land loan

NZPA Wellington The Ministry ;of Agriculture had prepared a set of budgets on the- Fitzgeralds’ farming proposition, a step which was unusual, the Commission of Inquiry into the Marginal Lands Board loan row heard yesterday.

The Director-General of Lands (Mr N. S. Coad) was being cross-examined by Mr J. O. Upton," counsel assisting the commission. Mr Upton asked if Mr Coad was aware that the Ministry had prepared budgets on the Fitzgerald farm. Mr Coad said he believed that that had been done, and agreed with Mr Upton that such a course had .struck him as unusual.

Earlier, answering questions by Mr Upton about the budgets, Mr Coad said these were prepared for the board by Lands and Survey Department staff. Mr Upton asked how often budgets for the board would be prepared by the Ministry. Mr Coad said he did not know, but if it was done, it was not done as part of the normal system. He thought a Ministry budget would be prepared in addition to a normal Lands and Survey budget, possibly only in highly specialised cases such as horticulture. It would not be done in the normal run of farming. He agreed with Mr Upton that the Fitzgerald application would be regarded as normal farming. At the start of proceedings, Mr 'Coad said that since giving evidence last Thursday he had been told by a Ministry of Agriculture farm advisory officer, Mr P. Hockey, that he (Hockey) had never been offered dr received monetary payment for any? advice given to the Fitzgeralds. On Thursday Mr Coad told the commission that he thought that Mr Hockey, the Ministry representative on the board who asked to be excused from discussion on the Fitzgerald loan at the March 4 meeting, had been a paid consultant to the couple in addition to his normal duties. Mr Coad said he withdrew that statement but agreed with the commission’s chairman, Mr D. B. Inglis, Q.C., that it was what he had believed at the time.

Answering questions' by Mr M. R. Camp, counsel for the Minister of Lands (Mr V. S. Young), Mr Coad repeated that neither Mr Young’s letter of January 25 nor comments made by him at the January 29 meeting had made him feel to be under any duress with regard to the Fitzgerald application.