ANOTHER LITTLE BILL

Grey River Argus, 8 December 1932, Page 6

ANOTHER LITTLE BILL

FOR OTTAWA TRIP Mr Coates Riled (From Our Purliniiictary Reporter.) \\ ELLINGTON. December 7. A furl her amount o'.’ £450, which appears in the Supp.emeutary Estimates to cover additional exp' uses of lhe New Zealand Delegation to the ,| m pe*ia| Conference at Ottawa, gave rise to a discussion iu the Hous- of Represent aiives 10-nighl. ami cuiuiucnts from the Labour benches brought a sharp rebuke from the Minister uf Public Works. Mr J. A. Lee asked whether the M niber for Wairau (M-r Hotly) had participated in additional expenses in view of “back-door’’ lobbying which he was supposed to have done.' Mr Coates said that Al r . Healy had not done ;|IIV “back-door" lobbying. He had ofi<«red his S“rvicc.s free, and he had never asked for payment at any time This inquiry by Mr Lee was utterly unjust iliable. Mr Howard th-n asked why these Ottawa “XpeiiS(« s had nor been present cd in one Bill. For years, he said, he had comp'ained about Ihe unsatisfactory way in whi< h the Public Accounts had been p! ,, sented. It was almost impossible Io find out what were the expenses incurred by the Ministers He was m>t questioning the amount of the exp' uses, as New 7. aland was not over generous in the matter of expenses, but he did complain about the manner in which the accounts were kept. Rev. C. Carr said that the previous vote to>- the Ottawa Delegation had been £3756, ami he asked whether this additional amount, was t,o he th- final payment, lie had noticed, from newspaper reports, that Night Clubs “across the river” had been popular with the Ottawa delegates, but he know that was not true.

Mr Coates said ■ this additional amount was to covf’r general expenses of the Delegation. It had to be re membered that when the main Esti mates were p'repared. the Delegation had not returned and an additional amount had hetm reipiin'd to meet expenses which had been incurred. Naturally receipts and vouchers had been shown ifor th’ amount involved. He said the r'‘niark made by R»'V. Mr Carr was beneath contempt. Mr Carr; “I said that it was not 1 rue! ’' Air Coates: “Then why mention it?” Th - Chairman of Committees: “Order! Order!”