SAYINGS EFFECTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21131, 14 March 1932, Page 11

SAYINGS EFFECTED.

REVIEW BY MINISTER. AN IMPRESSIVE TOTAL. ULTIMATE REDUCTION £850,000. [ny TELEGRAPH. —rRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Saturday. Interviewed in connection with the recommendations of the National Economy Commission so far as they related to his department, the Hon. R. Masters, Minister for Education, said he had no comment to make except to say that many of the suggestions had already been the subject of discussion. The commission's report would be dealt with by Cabinet in due course.

Asked for information in regard to economies already effected in the Department of Education, the Minister stated that the economies effected this year as against last year amounted to £425,078. Ihere was also a reduction in capital expenditure of £201,344. which brought the total saving to £626,422. The 10 per cent, reduction in salaries accounted for £274,709 of the total and savings had been effected in the following items: — Grant for handwork material withdrawn; itinerant physical instructors dispensed with; specialist in school music not replaced; grants to Education Boards reduced; subsidies on voluntary contributions withdrawn; junior and senior scholarships withdrawn; no probationers appointed for 1932 ; inspectorate reduced ; appointment of assistants for large classes postponed; organising teachers dispensed with; school and class libraries' contributions withdrawn; travelling allowances. etc., reduced; high school and junior high school incidental grants reduced; part-time commercial instructors in district high schools dispensed with; grant for chairs of education withdrawn; grant for chairs of midwifery and forestry withdrawn; grants to university colleges reduced; agricultural bursaries reduced; education and engineering bursaries -withdrawn; home science bursaries reduced; grant for technical classes at university colleges withdrawn; Workers' Educational Association grants withdrawn; grants to technical schools for administration reduced; allowances to training college students reduced; grants to Education Boards for maintenance of buildings reduced; remote allowance to teachers withdrawn; reduction in the amount paid for boarding State wards; Council of Education abolished; cost of examinations reduced; subsidies to public libraries withdrawn; no subsidies of any kind now payable except to Jubilee Institute for the Blind ; grant to asse y College reduced; grant to New Zealand University for general purposes withdrawn; university bursaries reduced; and restriction of expenditure for buildings. The Minister stated that the figures lie had quoted represented savings for this financial year. The full effect of the economies would not be felt until the end of the 1932-33 financial year, when the total savings effected in the above items would approximate £850,000. DISEASED STOCK. BIG COMPENSATION BILL. £29,000 MIGHT BE SAVED. A spectacular saving of all but about £2OOO out of a yearly vote of £31,500 for compensation to owners of condemned and destroyed livestock will probably be effected if proposals by the National Expenditure Commission are adopted. In pointing out that £14,500 was provided in 1931-32 in respect of stock slaughtered for food and condemned by official inspectors, the commission's report says:—"Vendors of other foods which are condemned or become unfit for consumption have themselves to bear the loss, which >s generally recognised as a loss incidental to trading, and there does not appear to he any reason why the Government should extend special consideration to one class of the community." It is recommended that the statutory provision for payment be repealed. Regarding compensation for living animals condemned by stock inspectors and destroyed, for which purpose £17,000 was provided, the commission points out that in certain eventualities the Stock Act requires an owner to notify the inspector, and for any animal destroyed by the latter's order half the current fair market value is payable as compensation to the owner. "Wo hold the view that an obviously diseased animal has no market value," it states, " and that there should bo no compensation where disease is definitely visible." The commission considers, however, that compensation should be paid where an animal is destroyed and a post-mortem shows no disease; also where an apparently healthy animal is found by an inspector to be diseased and its destruction is ordered. It, is considered that probably a nominal appropriation of, say, £2OOO a year would suffice to meet claims under theso heads.