THE SHIPPING SUBSIDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20363, 18 September 1929, Page 10

THE SHIPPING SUBSIDY.

An opportunity was given to the Government yesterday to publish the amount of the subsidy which it has contracted to pay for the super fluous duplication of the South Island-Melbourne steamer service. It is information to which both Par liament and the public are entitled, and should have been disclosed immediately the negotiations were completed. Unfortunately, the member for Clutha was not content with asking a straightforward question, but was tempted to embellish it with a speculative criticism of the answer, suggesting that the Government had fallen into a holn. Since the Government obviously is not proud of the amount of the subsidy, and prefers to keep it secret until it is forced to confess it —as it must in the supplementary estimates—Mr. Waite's method of interrogation enabled the Minister of Industries and Commerce to avoid the issue by a vain boast of the Government's security from stumbling, and was no doubt heartily applauded by the back-benchers for his adroit riposte. But this Parliamentary fencing does not impress the public, least of all the overburdened taxpayers, who are committed to the payment of a subsidy for the expansion of a service whieh barely supports one regular steamer, and incidentally for the payment, of port dues to four Southern harbour boards. If the subsidy is so huge that fhe Government dare not disclose the amount, what excuse will it have to offer for entering into the contract? The PostmasterGeneral has just returned from Christchurch, where he has been acclaimed as a business man who punctually fulfils bis undertakings. Is it in keeping with this reputation that his signature has been appended to a contract so onerous that the Government is ashamed to admit the magnitude of its folly?