THE STATE'S BAD DEBTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17627, 13 November 1920, Page 8

THE STATE'S BAD DEBTS.

IRRECOVERABLE ITEMS. DAMAGE DONE BY TROOPS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Friday. Under the heading of sums irrecoverable by the Crown, the following items appear on the Supplementary Estimates :— Stores, clothing and equipment, . Trentham and Featherston military camps, attributable to disorganisation, brought about by the influenza, epidemic, £274. Canterbury military district (various groups and units), inability to allocate responsibility for losses, and in order to adjust ledgers and stock under the new permanent ordnance service £2532. Same for Wellington military district. £14,787. Same fcr Auckland military district £9006. Ordnance stores ex. s.s. Mokoia, negligence could not be proved £487. Equipment in King George V. Hospital, Rotorua, £23. Equipment in officers' clothing department, London, £121. * Damage done by New Zealand troops at S'ing camp, on March 14 and 15, 1919, £8272. Stores on charge to Walton-on-Thames Hospital, England, £215. Stores purchased for use in connection with vocational training of returned soldiers; defective book-keeping and improper handing over of stores by.instructresses, £518. Military clothing, uniforms and stores destroyed by fire when the ordnance depot was burnt in Dunedin, £1237. New Zealand State coal depot, Wellington, coal short at year ended, March 31, 1920, £881. Coke short at year ended, March-31, 1920, £143. In_ the war expenses account the following item appears:—Proportion of damages assessed against New Zealand troops by board of inquiry. Cairo, in connection with riots at Ismailia, Egypt, in July, 1919, which resulted in looting and damage to private property (assessment, Australia 40. per cent., New Zealand 40 per cent. United Kingdom 20 per cent), £2529. '