“MUZZLING” ALLEGED

Northern Advocate, 24 October 1935, Page 9

“MUZZLING” ALLEGED

MR CAUGHLEY HITS OUT AUDITOR-GENERAL’S REPORT NO DISCUSSION IN HOUSE [Special to “Northern Advocate”! DARGAVILLE, This Day. That the Minister of Finance had not permitted the last three reports of •the auditor to be discussed in Parliament was one of the claims made by Mr J, C. Caughley, Democrat party candidate for Kaipara, speaking at Ruawai to a large audience. “What is wrong with the rest oi the members?” asked Mr W. A. Preston. “That’s what I’d like to know, said Mr Phipps Walker. “They are helpless,” declared Mr Caughley. Mr Preston. “Then , the Minister must be a very strong man.” Mr Caughley explained the procedure adopted in Parliament for dealing with matters on the agenda paper. The Auditor-General’s report, he alleged, was placed near the bottom of the agenda paper, and stayed there all the time. The Minister of Finance said that members had no opportunity to discuss it. The order of the items was decided on by the Prime Minister. ,

Mr A, Valley: “Then Mr’Forbes was equally as culpable as Mr Coates.” Mr Caughley; “He is, as, far as this matter is concerned.”

A voice: “They’re a lot of rogues.” Mr Caughley emphasised that never before in the history of the* House pad the Auditor-General’s report been “muzzled” in such fashion, and never before had the Auditor-General had occasion to make such scathing comments on the accounts presented by the Minister; of Finance. No one would know what the real position was until the Government had been put out of power, and then, probably, a state of affairs would be revealed, before which the revelations of the Native Affairs Commission would pale into insignificance.