THE PREMIER AND THE AUDIT DEPARTMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 10933, 16 May 1899, Page 1

THE PREMIER AND THE AUDIT DEPARTMENT.

The Premier informed a deputation at Master ton the other day, who had asked for assistance in aid of the local technical school,. that the Auditor-General, when certifying to the public accounts for the year ended March 31 last, had attached this memo to his certificate : la)_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 & ct, 1896, in respect to technical schools, and included, as the section requires, in the Estimates and accounts for the year or other period in which the same were paid, were not provided for by the Appropriation Act, 1898 ; (B) a sum of £9lO 13s 7d, being moneys which were, under the authority ot imprest supply, expended ,ln respect to technical schools, but which were not sanctioned by Parliament in the session in which such Imprest Supply was passed. The Premier complains, and not without reason, that the Audit Department has unjustifiably charged him as Treasurer with practically smuggling £2,000 through' without the knowledge of; the House. The facts are these : In Committee of Supply, in the eal’ly hours of November 2, the House, being in a bad frame of mind, struck out by a majority of one tbo vote for £25,000 with which it was intended to give effect to the Technical Education Bill. Before the House rose next day the Premier called pointed attention to the action of the Committee, saying (vide ‘ Hansard,’ p, 128) By the striking out of the vote of £25,C00 tho amount available for public works will be swelled. I might say that £1,500 has been paid to the Wellington Technical School and £9ll for Dunedin. The main question is to get the matter settled, and if there is a possible chance of this being done I shall put a sum of money for the purpose on the Supplementary Estimates. I shall not do so unless there is a general feeling In favor of the proposal. Ncr sooner had the Premier resumed his seat than he was met with indications of uncompromising opposition. Mr T. E. Taylor voiced the feelings of the antidenominational party, and let it he plainly understood that so long as the objectionable clauses in the Technical Education Bill were retained, under which it might be possible to give grants-in-aid to denominational schools, there were “ half a dozen “members in this part of the House “ who will offer the most strenuous oppo- “ sition to these clauses, even if they have “to stop here until next week ” —it was then on the very eve of prorogation—while Mr Crowther and Mr Hogg were pleading for additional assistance for tho institutions at Auckland and Masterton respectively. As a matter of fact, no agreement was reached, and in consequence the vote of £25,000 did not appear on the Supplementary Estimates. Referring to ‘ Hansard ’ (p. 767) we find the member for Kaiapoi (MrMooRE) inquiring the morning before prorogation whether the Government intended to place any vote for technical education under the control of the Education Boards, or whether it was the intention of the Government to subsidise private schools ? The Premier’s reply was quite explicit. When the Committee got into a tangle over this particular vote they had wakened him—he had been asleep during the discussion—and the difficulty was solved, at his own suggestion, by striking the vote out altogether. That left him with an additional £25,000 available for public purposes. And ho went on to say :

He had never given a pledge that be would the amount back on the Supplementary Estimates, and he did not intend to put it back. They had a vote of £2 000 under the original Act [that of 1895], which, of course, they could distribute under that Act; but if money wat, wanted for tuildinga or apparatus for technical schools this year, the rerponsibidty must bo on those who struck out tho item, and he was himself one of them.

We thought at the time, and think still, that tho Premier ought to have accepted a reasonable compromise on the Technical Education Bill, and made its provisions absolutely free from doubt on the score of assistance to sectarian schools; but we take leave to say that Mr Sbddon took the House fully into his confidence in regard to the disposition of the vote. The liabilities in respect to the technical schools at Wellington and Dunedin had already been incurred, and Mr Seddon took tho only course open to him under the circumstances to fulfil the pledges given by tho Hon, Mr Walker to the Wellington Board on the one hand, and to the Technical Classes Association here on the other.