FORGOTTEN COMMISSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17392, 12 February 1920, Page 4

FORGOTTEN COMMISSIONS.

The Parliamentary p»rty which is about to visit Samoa has been completed .by the appointment of "' two gentlemen to report on the trade of the islands, * It is well that commercial interests should be I represented in the general survey of Samoan conditions which is about ' to! be made, and. in Messrs. G. Elliot and R. W. Pearson the Government has selected representatives whose judgment will command general confidence. ," The question arises, however, whether the appointment of such a' commission is not' i mere waste . of :■. public money yi* view of the'absurd' practice which has .arisen of calling for reports on every controversial subject and then.; ignoring the recom-. mendations. The public j will not have forgotten.that another commission was sent to Samoa a few months ago—Mr. Elliot was a member of it also—to inquire into the influenza epidemic. It \ made' •: a>■ number of recommendations—among the more important being that the Health Department only should issue bills of health, and that a quarantine officer should be appointed for New Zealand and its , dependencies. These are still merely recommendations, and so far as practical results go the Samoan Commission might never have been constituted. It was the same with the inquiry into the epidemic in New Zealand. Exhaustive findings followed"; a careful inquiry, . but' the : Department which came, under criticism has gone on its way, undisturbed. ■.; This procedure |s farcical. If the reports of such commissions are not to be regarded as a basis for action, then the commissions should not be appointed! dfi lf,\ ou the other hand, the commissions enjoy the confidence of the Government an effort should-be made to translate their recommendations into legislative and adminiifcrfttim —f^nw