WAR VEHICLES INQUIRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 August 1946, Page 4

WAR VEHICLES INQUIRY

EVIDENCE BY MEMBERS OF BOARD

BULK SALE METHODS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 21. At the opening of the afternoon’s sitting of the War Vehicles Commission of Inquiry, Mr. R. E. Harding announced that he would appear with Mr. C. H. Arndt for W. P. Warner who, he understood, would be called to give evidence. Warner was employed part time by the board as a motor vehicle valuer.

In consenting to the release of Archibald’s, said John George Young, deputy chairman of the War Assets Board, continuing his evidence, he had probably been influenced by his experience in the Post Office. That department dealt with a great many contracts which included a deposit. When he left the Government had never claimed a deposit. Answering the Commissioner, the witness said Archibald’s threat of legal proceedings did not affect his opinion about their release. David Alexander Ewen, chairman of directors of Sargood, Son and Ewen, and a member of the War Assets'Realisation Board, said he felt it was the board’s duty to sell the vehicles to the best advantage. To do that time must be saved. In this case, where what might be called a job lot had been bought, a clean, quick sale at a good profit was, he felt when the transaction was being considered, the best thing the board could do. From the point of view of a businessman he felt that the release of Archibald’s was the wisest course.

Answering Mr. W. E. Leicester, the witness said it had not occurred to him that the way the board dealt with the release of Archibald’s allowed Archibald’s to substitute a new tender for their old tender, saving £30,000 and causing a loss to the Government of £14,000. Norman Edwin Hutchings, Undersecretary of the Public Works Department, and a member of the board, said the difficulties of making a valuation of the vehicles given by the general manager satisfied him, although he was still a little unsettled about it, and raised the question at a subsequent meeting. Mr. J. Meltzer, counsel for Mr. O. Conibear, secretary to the board, announced that the pencilled schedule of tenders, into the loss of which Mr. P. B. Cooke, K.C. (counsel for the Crown), had suggested the commission should inquire, had been found as the result of a search. Conibear was giving evidence when the commission adjourned until to-morrow morning. .