AN AMBUSCADE

Northern Advocate, 8 November 1934, Page 6

AN AMBUSCADE

CHARGES HELD BACK. MINISTER’S TRAVELLING EXPENSES. [From Our Parliamentary Special .] WELLINGTON, This Day. That an attempt was being made to spring upon him charges regarding his travelling expenses, was one of the points emphasised by Sir Apirana Ngata in his criticism of the report of the Native Affairs Commission.

Sir Apirana said that information in regard to these vouchers was obtained by the Audit Department last December. If there were complaints against

the Minister and his private secretary in the execution of his duty, he contended that the matter should have been reported to the Internal Affairs Department, which handled the expenses of Ministers, but the vouchers complained of were held until the commission was sitting in Gisborne in June of this year. •‘Then,” continued the ex-Minister, “one evening counsel for the Maoris rang up to say that they were going to spring this before the commission at Gisborne. I said ‘That is not fair. The usual course is to submit these to the Minister or his secretary for explanation.’ That is the ordinary line, but nothing of the sort was done. It was too good publicity matter, and they wanted to launch it while the commission was sitting at Gisborne, but the chief witness on whom they relied had come under the castigation of Mr Justice Blair.

“In the case of Royal and Biddle, according to the jury, it should have been fixed up between the Audit Department and the parties, but it was too good stuff for the newspapers, and it would have been shot off at Gisborne but for the fact that the chief witness in the complaint was practically called a liar by Mr Justice Blair. The papers were brought down from Gisborne, and, a few days before the complaint came before the commission, they were sent to me.”

Sir Apirana declared that the chief witness never got before the commission, and counsel for the defence was never given an opportunity of raking him over the coals because his story was not that which was told by the accounts in the hands of his (the Minister’s) secretary. The amount involved was £23 2/-. Sir Apirana stated that in connection with the Coromandel motor trip, a subject to criticism, the contract for a period of days was £45, and no more was paid. If Coromandel was included, it was included in the price, but he would go no further into the small things, of which he believed there were 21.