RULE BY COMMISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 9

RULE BY COMMISSION.

AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENT.

NEW SOUTH WALES' EXAMPLE,

SPOILS TO THE VICTORS. [FROM OUR OWN COIHIESPONDENT."! SYDNEY. March 10. When it is said in Australia that the crop of new season's boards and commissions is coming along nicely reference is made to a phase in administration that is becoming increasingly popular, particularly under Mr. Lang, in New South Wales. In New South Wales several candidates at the State and Federal elections who supported the Lang Plan and were defeated have fared better than those who were elected, for they have been rewarded with appointments to boards at salaries much grcator than they would havo received as mere members of Parliament. And they have been given greater power than even the Parliament. Each successive party has strewn its path with boards as monuments to its industry while in power, but none has so brazenly distributed the spoils to the victor as Mr. Lang's

The latest addition to the crop of boards in New South Wales is the Milk Board, which lias so increased the price of this essential commodity that the consumption of it has fallen away alarmingly. Tho boa/d's object is to ensure a bettor price to the producer, but what will the producer benefit if the people are unable to pay'the price demanded? " Governed by Boards." New South Wales is practically governed by boards which enter every phase of national life. Soon there will he the Transport Commission of nine—each member on a substantial salary—which will not only lake over tho railways and the tramways, but lay down rules to control every class of transport within the State. It will gather around it a huge staff, but in the latter connection will bo by no means unique, as far as boards go. Here are tho more important of the boards and commissions in New South Wales, together with the commitments on tho current estimates:— Salaries, Other etc. expenses. Harbour Trust . . . . '142,333 £201,070 Railways Commission . . 210,003 201.789 Hospitals Commission . . 3,818 1,259 Industrial Commission . . 5,040 7,474 Road Transport Com. . . 240.910 2,873,170 Western Land Board . . 5.087 -J,400 Forestry Commission . . 38,937 23,435 Aborigines Protect. Com. 4,396 29,250 Irrigation Commission ..' 61,172 29,250 Public Service Board .. 11,280 2,806 Superannuation Board . . 8.734 1,885 Marketing Bureau . . . 0,350 2,585 Totals £645,592 £3,139,979 Additional Items. These figures do not, of course, represent, anything like the total expenditure by boards, commissions and other semipublic bodies. There are all sorts of additional items under "special services," and a multitude of boards that are supposed to bo more or loss self-supporting, but all dependent upon the Government for some share of their expenditure. These include the Meat Board, the Dental Board, the Pharmacy Board, the Medical Board, the Milk Board, the State. Contracts Control Board, the Railway Superannuation. Board, the Licenses Reduction Board, the' Tick Control Board, the Pastures Protection Board, the Electoral Commission, the Lord Ilowe Island Board of Controh the Savings Bank Commission, the Metropolitan Water Board, the Hunter District Water Board, tho Electrical Licensing Board, the Board of Optometrical Registration, and so on. Soon there will be a board to control the coal mining industry. And more boards are to follow.

The Commonwealth has been almost as great an offender as the State Governments, and this has prompted the comment- that Ministers of State are no longer prepared to shoulder the responsibilities of their office. ]t seems to have become the practice to pass Ihe real work 011 to some other bodv.