COSTLY RETURNS.

Grey River Argus, 2 September 1908, Page 4

COSTLY RETURNS.

The refusal of the Attorney-General to furnish the return asked for by the Hon J. T. Paul relating to the amount of money annually spent on the. lease of premises for Government offices in the four chief centres was productive of at least one outspoken utterance. Every session all sorts of possible and impossible returns are asked for. Some of ,, them concern the veriest trifles Others, owing to their complexity, are incapable' of being made without a great deal of expense and time, and all to very little purpose. The Hon O. Samuel in a general reference to the returns furnished to 'Parliament said, that many of them were absolutely purposeless. It was not only a question of cost of preparation, and printing, but the dislocation of office work and ; the delay thereby occasioned in the carrying out of esential services. He knew of cases where officers engaged in the preparation of plans and mapsior such things as roads had to put aside their work in order that some return might be furnished. "We have in the past," he said, "been too ready in asking , for these returns, and the Government has not been ready enough in opposing them." .