EXPENSE TO THE LEAGUE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 313, 2 December 1933, Page 9

EXPENSE TO THE LEAGUE.

MR POLSON CRITICAL. HOPE FOR A REDUCTION. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Dec. 1. Consideration of the Estimates was continued when the House of Representatives resumed at 2.30 p.m. Replying to a question, raised during the discussion of the vote for the Agricultural Department,. Hon. C. E. JVfacmillari said, speaking for himself, that he had no intention of relaxing the embargo on stock until there was a general feeling among farmers that it was safe to do so. The opinion that New Zealand's expenses in connection with the League ! of Nations were too heavy was expressed by Mr W. J. Poison when the vote for the Prime Minister's Department 1 was being discussed. Ho said the annual contribution towards the expenses of the Secretariat was £IB,OOO and, in addition, £6OO had been expended last year on the expenses of the New Zealand delegate at the Disarmament Conference and £750 on the expenses of the delegate to Geneva. These amounts were too big for a country the size of New Zealand. .They would probably not be grudged if results were being achieved. Mr P. Eraser expressed the opinion that Geneva was the only hope for the world at the present time. Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes said New Zealand had made representations to see. whether her contribution could be reduced, and it was hoped she might get some reduction in future. He pointed out that one difficulty was that there were a number of nations who had defaulted in their contributions. Any British country, once it had given its word, would pav in full. COMPETITIVE TRANSPORT. The effect of the competition between rail and seaborne traffic was mentioned by Mr Eraser during consideration of the Railway Estimates. The Prime Minister, replying, said there was no desire to compete in such a way as to ruin coastal shipping services. He would be very sorry in-j deed to see that happen. ] Mr Eraser: Cannot we have some . sort of co-ordination? Mr Forbes: That is bound up in the co-ordination of all transport services so that the public may be protected from exploitation. Mr Forbes said this was an objective which the Government -kept continually in view. He explained that, whereas the railways formerly had to compete only with seaborne traffic, they iiad now to compete with road transport as well, and the board had had to amend its rates in order to maintain its WAIRARAPA MAIL CONTRACT. I Further reference to the Wairarapa! mail contract was made when the P. and T. Department vote was before the House. Mr A. D. McLeod asked the Post-master-General whether he had any , statement to make as to the accept-, ance of a certain tender to which reference had been made last Friday. He said Iris personal character had been involved to some extent, and he desired to have the matter cleared up. Hon. A. Hamilton said that, since the matter had last been mentioned, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr M. J. Savage) had inspected the files on the subject, and he, no doubt, would tell the House what was his opinion. He could assure the House that the department realised the value of the lowest tender element in contracts of this kind, but there were other factors to be taken into consideration. For instance, the department always inquired as to whether the lowest tenderer and his guarantors were satisfactory. The department also preferred to retain an existing contractor if he had been satisfactory to the department and the public, and when, his tender was sufficiently near to the»lo\vest tender, this factor was taken into consideration. Another point considered by the department was the relative position of the tenderers. For instance, preference might reasonably be given a married ex-serviceman, with dependants, over a single man. Under such circumstancs, the department might make an offer to tire second lowest tenderer and the latter might accept it. That was what had been done in the case of the Wairarapa contract. Mr Hamilton added that he was quite sure that the Leader of the Opposition was satisfied the right thing had been done. Mr Savage said he had had an opportunity of inspecting the files and< he had seen nothing irregular. He had observed certain human elements and he would like to make it quite clear what he meant by that. He had seen where a one-armed married man with a family had been given preference when his tender was only slightly higher than the lowest tender. "I would do that myself if I were in the Postmaster-General's position," he said. "I saw nothing irregular in any shape or form." Mr McLeod : Thank you. Mr Eraser thanked the PostmasterGeneral for having afforded the Leader of the Opposition an opportunity of inspecting the file. "I think the method adopted was a good one for the purpose of clearing up the position," he added. Mr W. E. Barnard expressed approval of the. methods of considering tenders as outlined by the PostmasterGeneral, and said he considered they were sound from business aiuj other points of view. Replying to a number of questions as to the Government's intentions regarding B class radio stations, the Minister said he would make a statement in the near future on the sulv ject of broadcasting after consultation with the Broadcasting Board. Mr R. McKeen : Will the service be as good as formerly? Mr Hamilton: We hope so.. We hope it will be better. VOTES PASSED. ■

The following votes were passed today : —Land for Settlement, £4IOO ; Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement, £57,000; State Forests, £125,062; Agriculture, £653,875; Prime Minister’s Department, £21,939; liailways, £4,939,480; Treasury, £33,885; Customs, £84,645; Lands and Income

Tax, £61,850; Stamp Duties, £80,420; ' Post and Telegraph. £2,321,851; • Tourist and Publicity, £118,000; Health, £723,016; Mental Hospitals, £252,000. The House rose at 5.40 till 2.30 on Tn«Kflav nfternonn.