WORK OF MINISTERS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 223, 16 June 1932, Page 8

WORK OF MINISTERS

Allegation and a Reply MR. COATES’S ANSWER Statements by Mr. R. McKeen, M.P., in an address at Newtown this week to the effect that the Minister of Finance, Hon. W. Downie Stewart, did not prepare the Budget statement, and that the Minister of Employment, Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, did not think out the small farm plan, were replied to by Mr. Coates yesterday. “I can emphatically deny the statement that Mr. Downie Stewart did not prepare the Budget,” Mr. Coates said. “To my certain knowledge he drafted every word of the last two Budgets.' The truth of this would be borne out by every member of Cabinet. The statement about myself is equally wide of the mark. It is a piece of misrepresentation that will be no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the methods of Mr. McKeen and some of his colleagues.” MR. McKEEN’S REJOINDER Ten-acre Scheme and Galatea Speaking at Island Bay last eveniug Mr. It. McKeen, M.P., dealt with the reply to his previous remarks which Mr. Coates had made earlier in the day. Mr. McKeen said that he welcomed the reply, as it gave him the opportunity to state exactly what the position was regarding the preparation of the Budget. . In reply to Mr. Coates, Mr. McKeen said that anyone who was familiar with each Financial Statement during the past few years would never be guilty of accusing the present Finance Minister of personally drafting the Budget. “It is well known that apart from the determination of policy arising from the Budget, it is exclusively a departmental production,” he declared. "No definite thought could have been given to such a scheme, which pretends to absorb the unemployed.” Mr. McKeen said when replying to Mr. Coates’s statements regarding the 10acre scheme for unemployed. “Otherwise, surely the Government would have gone on with the settlement of the Galatea Estate, on which it was proposed to place 125 settlers. Recently 100 unemployed men were engaged on the estate to prepare it for settlement. These men have been dismissed and the Government bas decided not to go on with the scheme for a period of three or five years, despite the fact that over £150.000 has been spent on ' acquiring the estate and also in reading, drainage and fencing.”