THE PREMIER AND THE AUDITOR-GENERAL.

Evening Star, Issue 10931, 13 May 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PREMIER AND THE AUDITOR-GENERAL.

Replying to a Masterton deputation which asked for assistance for the Technical School, the Right Hon. Mr Seddon referred to the financial aspect, remarking that on Thursday he received the public accounts, when he found that the Auditor-General had developed into a partisan, and put the following tag on the public accounts: — (a) A sum of £-1,500, being moneys which had been issued and paid under the authority of section 3 of the Public Revenues Act Amendment Act, 1896, in respect of technical schools, and included, as the section requires, in the Estimates and account:: for the year or other period in which the same were paid, were not provided for by the Appropriation Act, 1898 ; (n) a sum of £9lO 13s 7d, being moneys which were, under the authority of imprest supply, expended in respect of technical schools, but which were not sanctioned by Parliament in the session in which such imprest

Supply was passed. ll Administration tinder such circumstances, Mr Sodden said, was impossible. He explained that the sums referred to were granted before the vote was taken off the Estimates. When the matter was before the House he took Parliament into his Confidence. He little thought such a “ tag ” on the matter would have been attached to the accounts.