DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRY INTO SAMOAN AFFAIRS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 26 July 1929, Page 8

DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRY INTO SAMOAN AFFAIRS

FULL EXTRACTS PUBLISHED. LEG LSLATIVE COUNCIL HOLDS BRIEF SITTING. WELLINGTON, Last Night. The Legislative Council met at 2.30 p.m. to-day. Sir Francis Bell asked if the Leader of the Council would lay on the tabic the commission to Messrs. Verschaffelt and •others to inquire into and report upon the Samoan Civil Service, also the Commissioner’s report. The Leader of the Council (Hon. T. K. Sidey), in reply, stated that Mr, Verschaffelt and his colleagues were sent to the territory on the instructions of the late Prime Minister, not as a commission, but as a departmental committee of inquiry. No set order of reference was issued to them, but their instructions required them to investigate and report on any aspect of the finances and staff of the territory that appeared to them to call for investigation. The Government had decided not to publish the report in full but immediately on its receipt, .very lengthy extracts were handed to the press, after the elimination of the small portions consisting almost entirely of personal references which the Government considered unsuitable for publication. In view of the wide publicity given to those extracts at the time, it was not considered that the expense of printing would bo warranted, but a printed copy of published extracts would be laid ou the table. The Captive Birds Shooting Prohibition Bill (Hon. G. M. Thomson) was introduced and road a first time. The Council rose at 2.4:1 p.m. until 2.20 p.m. on Tuesday next.