MORE EXPENDITURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22250, 26 October 1935, Page 15

MORE EXPENDITURE

TOTAL OF £648,187 SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES RECENT SALARY INCREASES EDUCATION AND DEFENCE [H V TK I. K(. It A I'H. —SPECIAL REPORTER| WELLINGTON, Friday Additional Government expenditure for the current year, outlined in the Supplementary Estimates presented to the House of Representatives to-night, amounts to £618,187. Increased expenditure on education amounting to £139,652, ami on defence totalling £11,455, accounts for the greater part ot the estimates, apart, of course, from increased salary payments in every department. brought about by the 7J l>er cent retrospective increase in wages to civil servants.

Perhaps the most welcome grant in the education estimates is a sum of £•'•>00 for free kindergartens, a grant promised recently by the Minister of Education, Hon. S. G. Smith. Additional grants to education boards for teachers' salaries amount to £73,740; lor school and class libraries, £1200; and tor general administrative purposes, £1133. Salary increases account for £25,314 in secondary schools and grants to university colleges total £7873, including £3573 for the Auckland I Diversity College. Kxtra advances to training college students total £3210 and there is an additional grant of £250 to the New Zealand Institute for the Blind. Pensions and War Allowances Further Government expenditure on defence includes £7OOO for buildings and fortifications, £IO.OOO for field and heavy gun ammunition, £SOOO for ordnance stores and £15)00 for building maintenance. Aerodrome construction accounts for an additional £IO.OOO and the purchase of aircraft and equipment for an extra £SOOO. Ihe restoration in pension rates authorised by the first Finance-Act, together wit a the introduction of allowances for war veterans, are estimated to involve a total expenditure of £180,857. An additional 20 constables in the Police Department are to cost the country £2250 on a six months' basis. A sum of £20.000 is set down in tho Public Works and Services Estimates for expenditure on aerodromes and emergency landing grounds. Fruitgrowers in the Otago district, according to ail Agricultural Department grant, will receive £16.000 in lieu of a guarantee on fruit shipped in the 1933 season. The Government's scheme for milk distribution among schoolchildren takes shape under a Health Department grant for £3OOO, which is stated to be on account of £20.000. Railway Improvements Railway improvements for tho relief of unemployment announced recently by the Prime Minister, Mr Forbes, are provided for. Grade easements in Taranaki and the Welling-ton-Johnson ville electrification scheme account for most of the expenditure. An additional amount required to cover the cost of miscellaneous works under the working railways account is estimated to total £60,000. There are several extra grants for the development of tourist resorts. The Chateau, Tongariro National Park, is to receive £3500 for the road to the ski-ing grounds at Scoria Flat and the reconstruction of the bath buildings and the sanatorium at Rotorua is estimated to cost £IO.OOO on account. Additional estimates for main highways amount to £50.000. Additions to the Auckland police station, recently announced by the Minister of Justice, Hon. J. G. C'oblie, are to cost £2650. A sum of £3OO is provided toward the cost of sending to England two New Zealand detectives for s[>ecial training at Scotland Yard. Another vote is for £B6 to meet legal expenses in the action taken by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. W. G. Wohlmann. against A. E. Robinson for criminal libel.