DAY ON THE ESTIMATES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 298, 13 September 1941, Page 11

DAY ON THE ESTIMATES

House Passes Six More Classes Of Departmental Votes STATEMENT ON LAND DEVELOPMENT FIGURES The House of Representatives had a full day yesterday on the Estimates of Expenditure. As an interlude the report of the Public Accounts Committee on discrepancies between a return supplied in 1939 and the latest report of the Lands Department concerning, the cost of land development was submitted to the House. .The committee found that the discrepancies were due, not to. a defect in the accountancy system of the department, but to mistakes in the manner in which some information was compiled for the return.. After the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr. Nash, had explained the position, stating that the member for Waitomo, Mr. Broadfoot, had been justified m bringing the matter to the notice of the House, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, thanked Mr. Nash for his plain statement. Six classes of departmental votes were passed. .The votes approved were: Internal Affairs Department, £496,500; Social Security Department £5,670,947; Social Security Fund, £3,605,910; Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, £183,200; Department of Industries and Commerce, £801,400; Iron and Steel Industry Account, £BOOO. The total was £10,765,957. To date 47 classes of Estimates have been disposed of, involving £31,634,096. . Before the House adjourned, Mr. Holland asked the ActingPrime Minister, who went to Auckland last night, to convey the Opposition’s greetings to the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, on his return from abroad. , The House rose at 4.50 p.m. till 2.30 on Wednesday afternoon.

by the department, but that the estimates this year provided only £oooo. He suggested that if there were a shortage of arecolene the department should use some substitute, but should not allow the treatment to lapse. The Minister, Mr. Parry, explained that there were large reserve stocks in hand and the same amount would be distributed this year as last. Mr. Broadfoot (Oppostion, Waitomo) asked if there were a marked improvement in the prevalence of the disease. Much of the trouble was caused by the fact that animals which had died on the farms were not buried. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, also expressed the hope that the Government would keep up the work it was doing in the prevention of hydatids. »