SALE OF WAR ASSETS TO BE CONTROLLED BY NEW SMALL BOARD

Evening Star, Issue 26138, 27 June 1947, Page 4

SALE OF WAR ASSETS TO BE CONTROLLED BY NEW SMALL BOARD

(Special.) WELLINGTON, June 26. The Minister of Finance, Mr W. Nash, announced to-night that tne War Assets Realisation , Board has been reconstituted by the Government as a board of three members. The members of the new board are Milt. F. Picot, a prominent business man, who relinquished the position of Commissioner ot Supply some months ago; Mr F. W. Furkert, ex-engineer-in-ciiief of the Public Works department; and Mr W. N. Pharazyn, late military liaison officer for the New Zealand Government in the United States of America. The Minister said that the members of the old board had done a magnificent job of work since "its inception, and had made sales exceeding £25,000. The class of goods now being handed to the board for disposal was generally less readily saleable than formerly, and needed much closer attention by the board than was possible by members, who were all fully occupied by duties in their own departments. The new members would be able, the Minister added, to devote much more time to the problem of disposing of surplus war assets, and this would have the effect of speeding up sales. The previous board consisted of 14 members. The Royal Commission, Mr J. R. Batholomew, retired stipendiary magistrate, who last year investigated the disposal of surplus motor vehicles by the War Assets Realisation Board, considered that a board consisting of a general manager and two or three members of business experience, with power to co-opt various official representatives as occasion required, would be a more competent and efficient board. Mr Picot is the only member of the reconstituted board who was a member of the old board.