TOTING MONEY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 59, 6 September 1913, Page 9

TOTING MONEY

ESTIMATES BEFORE THE HOUSE POLICE AND JUSTICE A LONG SITTING. Consideration of the Estimates was resumed by the House shortly after 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. . PUBLIC BUILDINGS. The first class taken was Public Buildings, Domains, and Maintenance of Roads, total £5116,589. Dr. Newman drew attention to the fact that no details were given of the amount to be spent (£45,000) on the maintenance and improvement of roads. Mr. Russell said he proposed to move a reduction of £1 in the amount, by way ( of indicating that it was desirable to have before them details of the estimated expenditure. On receiving the Minister's assurance that it was impracticable to give a detailed statement of the different roads likely to be dealt with, the member for Avon abandoned his proposal. He desired to know if the Government proposed to impose a tax on motor-cars, the tax to go towards maintenance of, roads. The Minister replied that the question as to a motor tax did not come under his Department. The vote passed unaltered. NATIVE DEPARTMENT. The vote for the Native Department 1 passed unaltered, after a debate reported elsewhere. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. Total vote, £428,146. Mr. Wilford complained of a man being appointed Clerk of the Court, who had not passed any examination, over the heads of officers who had passed examinations. Such an appointment, he urged, was contrary to the expressed policy of the Public Service Commissioner. , The Minister (the Hon. A. L. Herdman) said the person appointed was a permanent member of the Service, and the appointment was quite regular. Mr. Wilford urged that the Government should make some grant for the improvement of law libraries in country towns. The Minister said the _ responsibility rested on the shoulders of the Law Society. It would be a very costly thing to the State if it went in for .that sort | of thing. Later, Mr. M'Callum moved, by way of protest, that- the vote be reduced by £1. , Member after member of the Opposition rose to comment on what they termed " the ridiculous position the Minister for Justice had got Parliament into." -The reference was, of course, to the powers of the Public Service Commissioner, who was, it was argued, an authority above Parliament. The motion for reduction of the vote was declared lost on the voices. ' It was singular to note that when the hands of the clock pointed towards midnight the attendance of members became "fine by degrees and beautifully .less." Just after midnight Mr. Webb made a speech against sending offenders against the law from being compelled to walk through the streets in prison' garb. Mr. Webb was eloquent for a few minutes, but even his eloquence failed to wake up the House. POLICE FORCE. It was not many minutes later that Mr. Wilford referred to the Police Estimates, ,and he put in a strong complaint against members of the force being required to pass an examination before they can gaim an upward step— a test to which, he argued, they ought not to be subjected. Also he wanted to know whether Mr. W. Darroch was conducting the whole of the coaching of the men who were going up for examination, and whether Mr. Darroch was going to set the papers for the examination. He was perfectly sure-, that some of the finest men in the police force would be unable to pass the examination. The Hon. A. L. Herdman said he did not believe that the regulations would press unjustly on the members of the force. Before a man was promoted it was necessary that a man should possess a certain amount of elementary knowledge. He had found that certain members of the force who had been placed in charge of country districts nad not the necessary knowledge to keep .accounts, which it was necessary should be kept. Mr. Darroch had i done good work m conducting correspondence 1 classes in the Post and Telegraph Department, with great satisfaction. He would set the paper, and the paper would be easy. It waß the desire of the Government to improve the position of the force, and with that object in view this system had been put into force. Mr. Wilford said that from all over the country he had received letters from "constables asking him to 'use his influence with the Minister to relax the regulations. They could not pass the examination, but they could hold their own against any lawyer in New Zealand, and yet, because they could not pass an examination, they had no chance of promotion. The Minister was unfair in setting these examinations. At half-past twelve Mr. Robertson made reference to the Waihi-Huntly strike, but there was very little animation in the House. Mr. Webb followed with a speech about the strike (the same strike that Mr. Robertson had referred to). STAMP DEPARTMENT. When the vote for the Stamp Department came under review, Mr. M'Callum moved to reduce it by £1 as an indication that the tax on large estates should be increased, and the tax on the smaller estates decreased. The motion was lost on the voices. The vote passed unaltered. CUSTOMS AND MARINE. It was 1.10 a.m. when the House en tered on the discussion of the estimates for the Internal Affairs Department, a total of £351,303. _ | Some members complained that the class held so many possibilities, that it I ought not to be commenced at that time of night. "We are only beginning now," remarked the Hon. W. fl. Herries. The Prime Minister urged that the hour was not really late ; he would not be/ unreasonable, he said. He would be satisfied if the Committee put through Customs and Marine. The Committee then considered that clas3. * The attendance, however, was small — a theatrical critic would have called it a " thin house." A political critic would have called it an absurdity, seeing that the amount of the vote was nearly £150,000. The vote was passed at 2.20 a.m., progress was reported; and the House, rose .at 2.25 a.Qii