THE ESTIMATES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 201, 8 August 1928, Page 5

THE ESTIMATES

£607'00 FOR FAMILY ALLOWANCES VOTE FOR FURCHASE OF ■PLANES GENERAL ELECTION EXPENSES (Special to “Tribune.”) Wellington, Aug. 8. The Estimates cause down last night. Of an amount of £45,000 voted last year for expenditure in family allowances the sum of £37,515 was actually spent. This year the vote is £60,000. Towards the pay and expenses of General Sir George Richardson while attending the meeting of the permanent Mandates Commission at Geneva a sum of £2,000 is allocated. In the Cook Islands vote appears an item of £30,192 as part of the year’s incidental expenses in connection with the running of the new motor vessel, Maui Pomare. In view of an increased output of pig iron which is expected this year, the bounty payable to the Onakaka Iron and Steel Co. is being increased to £B,OOO. Last year the vote was £4,820 and the expenditure £4,487.

ENTERTAINMENT EXPENDITURE

The principal entertainment expenditure in connection with the visits last year of the Right Hon. L. M. Amery and party. Admiral and Lady Fergusson and family, the Bishop of London and partv. Sir Tom Bridges and Dr. N. S. Newland, Professor Lund and students, the Canadian football team, the New Zealand cricketers, the Hon. T. R. Bavin and party, etc., amounted to £4,840. Expenses incurred in connection with the search for the missing airmen, Captain Hood and Lieut. Moncrieff, accounted for an item of £673. In the Internal Affairs Department vote an amount of £226 was also paid. Under the heading of unauthorised expenditure, a new grant of £12,500 is made in respect to the Auckland War Memorial.

The refitting of H.M.S. Diomede in England is costing £lB,OOO. In ordei to bring up to date the naval base workshops at Devonport, Auckland, a sum of £l,OOO is set aside. Reference libraries for' instructional purposes on H.M.S. Dunedin, Diomede and Philomel, are to cost £lOO. DEFENCE VOTE The Defence Department vote of £10,003 made last year for field and heavy gun ammunition and other explosives is this year being doubled, in order that reserve stocks of ammunition may be accumulated. The curtailment of camp attendances enables a reduction from £22.500 to £18,500 in the cost of catering and, for the same reason, the vote for territorials’ pay is reduced from £37,469 to £25,500. The purchase of additional airplanes, including Moths for loan to aero clubs, accounts for £30,000 allocated for the purchase of aircraft. Last year’s vote for the purpose was £19.400. Owing to increased importations by parcel post it has been found necessary to provide for an increase in the payment to the Post and Telegraph Department for collection of duty. The refund of duty on artificial poppies imported from England by the Returned Soldiers' Association for sale to the public amounts to £215 as compared with £143 last year. The expenses of the industrial conference held in the Parliamentary recess, including delegates honoraria and travelling allowances and expenses and secretarial charges, are set down at £3,750. Extraordinary items in the Electoral Department estimates incidental to the coming general election are £27,000 for the expenses of the polling. £30,000 for tire preparation and printing of the rolls, £BOO for Licensing Committee elections, £13,000 for the licensing poll and £2,000 for the formation of new rolls as a result of electoral boundary changes. SUBSIDIES To cover the cost of the jd. per lb. subsidy on pork exported to Great Britain, an amount of £15,000 on account appears on the estimates of the Agricultural Department. The vote of £58,500 last year as the Department’s portion of freight rates on fertilisers was over-expended, the actual amount spent being £74,806. This year £75,000 is allocated for the purpose. The expenses connected with the revision of the primary school syllabus amounted to £733. A number of new items appear in the estimates of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. They include £1.600 as grants, etc., in connection with pork and bacon production; £6,000 for dairy research ; £600" in connection with flax selection, breeding, cultivation and chemical and mechanical investigation. and £3.700 for research at the Canterbury Agricultural College. The travelling expenses of members of the Empire Forestry Conference are estimated at £2,500. WORKING RAILWAYS ESTIMATES In the working railways estimates appears a new item of £6,500 by way of subsidy to the railway sick benefit society. There is a further amount of £60.000 for the purchase of land and houses on behalf ■ of railway employees under the workshops reorganisation scheme.