GOVERNMENT WASTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 12

GOVERNMENT WASTE.

NEED FOR ECONOMY.

COST OF TRAVELLING. MEMBERS AND RELATIONS. absurdities of blue books.

No. 11. The taxpayer generally is not an unreasoning man. Being human, he grumbles when called upon to pay, but knowing that taxes are inevitable, he does pay them, and, when satisfied that they will be wisely spent, pays them in a spirit of co-operation with those whose task it

is to manage the affairs of State. He is entitled all the more then, when the State sees fit to burden him with a killing load of taxation, to expect from las legislators a grave and careful discharge of their responsibilities. He is entitled to insist that they shall spend his money with the utmost regard for every penny of value. That being the case, it is a pertinent question to put whether the taxpayer will tjet £27,075 worth of value from the railway travelling provided for in the 1931-32 general expenses vote of the Legislative Departments. This sum, it should be noted, does not include the Department of Internal Affairs vote of £BOOO for the travelling allowances and expenses of Ministers arid others, neither does it include the cost of steamer passages or the cost of transferring officers of the Public Service from one town to another.

Huge Railways Bill. t The following detailed list of votes for travelling is of sych a startling nature I as to seem incredibleßailway passes ! and concessions to members and ex- | members of the Legislature, families, relations, etc., £25,500; railway passes to officers of the Legislature, £125; railway sleeping berths for members of 1 arliament, £1250"; railway lounge-car seats for members of Parliament, £25; railway sleeping berths and lounge-car seats for members' wives, £125; addition to last item, £SO; total. £27,075. On the main Estimates £I2OO is voted for steamer passages of members of both Houses, and £2OO for the passages of members' wives. An additional £250 is provided in the supplementary Estimates in respect, of the first item, bringing the total to £1650. If to this is added the total vote for railway travelling, it is seen that the movements of members, exmembers, wives, families, relations, etc., is estimated to cost, the impoverished taxpayer £28,725. The £BOOO provided in the Department of Internal Affairs vote fof- the travelling allowances and expenses of Ministers and others raises the total to £36,725. A lot of travelling can be done for this sum. Spate of Correspondence. Prohibitive increases in postal and telegraphic rates, which have restricted business in the commercial world and thus defeated the revenue-raising purpose for which they were imposed, have not been allowed to dam the spate of official correspondence. It would seem, p> fact, as though the Government departments had conspired to provide, by their own efforts, the additional revenue sought by the Postal Department. Unlike the business community the Government can call.upon the taxpayer to pay for these lavish gestures. The following shows the. 1931-32 votes of a number of departments for postage, telegrams and rent of boxes, the votes for 1930-31 being in parentheses:— Legislative departments (including Parliamentary papers), £I7OO (£900) ; Treasury. £4IOO "(£2300) ; National Provident and Friendly Societies, £750 (£SGO); Land and Income Tax, £4BOO (£2150); Stamp Duties (includihg Lands and Deeds) £1950 (£1700); Native Affairs, £1750 (£1050) ; Industries and Commerce, Tourist and Publicity (including census and statistics), £4350 (£2750); Justice, £SOOO (£3550); Prisons, £IO6O (£6401: Police. £BOOO (£4400); Pensions, £5200 (£2750) ; Lands and Survey, £5243 (£4200); Agriculture. £4400 (£3850); Education, £SOOO (£3200). Printing of Trivialities.

The Printing and Stat:onery Department continues to flourish, fed in part by a mania, or perhaps a vanity, for enshrining in the printed page the wisdom of Ministers and offic'als which leaves (lie public cold. 'Lhe public as a whole, of course, never reads that annual masterpiece. the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, and those who do have occasion to iefer to it, find that, nine-tenths of the information it contains is of no general value whatever. Tim appendices comprise all official and departmental reports, accounts, statistics, maps, graphs, lithographs and photographs. The information. given is, for the most part, as futile as it is diverse, in view of the fact that those who would be interested in much of it would never dream of looking for it in the appendices. Matter for Text Books. For instance, the 1930 appendices contain several pages of detailed information concerning plants and birds. One learns that the milk-berry is a low-grow-ing. wiry-stemmed plant of the forest floor, with white flowers and opaque, fairsized milk-white berries. Interesting as this may be to know, the taxpayer would be getting a. much better deal if the information were published at a competitive price with the possibility of some return from book royalties. The taxpayer, too, if he be so inclined, can turn to the section on ntining and learn the meaning of "syncline," "anticline" and "monoclinnl fold." The labour even of consulting a dictionary has beeu saved him by a considerate Government.

Should tlie taxpayer grow weary of improving his knowledge of botany and mining ho can feast, his eyes upon photographs of concrete mixers and embankment;?- of spoil, or upon pictorial representations of blank stretches of road which convey no meaning whatever. But the fact that, he has paid for the production cf all this matter will not add to his enjoyment in perusing it. On the other hand, he will be appalled at. the grotesque extravagance of a Government that encourages among its departmental officers a costly and competitive striving after the production of barren fruit.