PUBLIC MONEY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10395, 27 September 1919, Page 8

PUBLIC MONEY

ALLEGED WASTE. The following question to the Minister for Defence has been given notice ,of by Mr J. Vigor Brown (Napier):— Whether he will inform this Houso who I is responsible for the following expendij ture of public moneys: A certain officer, by name of Major Hursthouse, of the New Zealand Dental Corps, accompanied by another officer with the rank of lieutenant, left New Zealand for Egypt on December 17th, 1918, ono month after the signing of the Armistice. In Egypt tho dental work was so far advanced that the authorities in charge- there were considering the demobilisation of their staff. On February Ist, 1919, these two officers were sent to Egypt, one costing the country £BO3 ss, and tho other £538 5s per annum, when at the cost of a few words in cabling, "Do you require help?" all this expense could have been saved and these officers demobilised instead of being sent around the world at the expense of the people of New Zealand? Now this major, ' added Mr Brown, held on to his soft position in a base camp in New Zealand while the war was on, but when the time came to be demobilised, instead of dropping a good £BOO a year, ho works it to keep on drawing his good salary and a joy ride thrown in. Tho great need of these officers in Egypt can be shown by the fact that aftei their arrival übroad, nnother officer came home directly, and still another went on leave to tho United Kingdom. And- Major Hursthouse, who only arrived in Egypt in February, applied for Icav'o to England the following April. This officer has since got to England, while otherst who have been bearing the brunt of service in the awful heat of tho East were not allowed to go.