AUDIT DEPARTMENT AND CABINET.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7052, 23 October 1900, Page 2

AUDIT DEPARTMENT AND CABINET.

A fijw days ago— last Wednesday, to be exact — the Premier succeeded in having passed the Public Eevenue Bill, which provides for tbe extension of the amount which may be expended under tbe beading " unauthorised expenditure " from ±'100,000 to £150,000. It will be remembered that, although tbe AuditorGeneral is an appointee of the present Government, be has displayed praiseworthy independence, and has on more than one occasion appended a " tag " to transactions which he considered not in accordance with the law. And that formed such a grievance that, perforce, the Public BeveDue Act inuet be amended, for, said Mr Seddon, one defect of the present audit system was that, after the House had passed money to be paid, if the amount required to be paid exceeded the sum named in tbe Act, the Audit Department would not hand over the money. Exactly ; and had the Auditor-General acted in any other way he would have been guilty of a breach j of trust. However, the Premier succeeded in having bis own way, despite a vigorous protest from Me Pirani. Thanks to the senseless system of doing business— the long sittings at the end of tbe session — when the measure was committed there were only nineteen members present out of seventy-four.