BOARD RULE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21598, 19 March 1932, Page 17

BOARD RULE

AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENT SPOILS TO THE VICTORS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) .. SYDNEY, March 10. When they say in Australia that the crop of new season’s boards and commissions is coining along nicely they are referring 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 ranch greater than they would have 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 hoards in New South Wales is the Milk Board, which has so increased the price of this essential commodity that the consumption of it has fallen away alarmingly. The board’s object is to ensure a better price to the producer, hut what will the producer benefit if the people are. unable to pay the price demanded ? New South Wales is practically governed by boards which enter every phase of the national life. Soon there will be the transport commission of nine—each member on a substantial salary—-which will not only take oyer the 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, be by no means unique, as far as boards go. Here are the more important of the hoards and commissions in New South Wales, together with the commitments on the current estimates: — Salaries, Allowances, Other etc. Expenses £ £ Harbour Trust .. .. 42,333 204,670 Railways Commission .. 216,903 261,789 Hospitals Commission .. 3,818 1,259 Industrial Commission .. 5,640 7,474 Road Transport Commission 240,940 2,873,176 Western Land Board .. 5,087 2,400 Forrestry Commission .. 38,937 23,435 Aborigines Protection Commission 4,396 29,250 Irrigation Commission 01,172 29,250 Public Service Board .. 11,280 2,806 Superannuation Board .. 8,731 1,885 Marketing Bureau .. 6.350 2,585 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 be more or less selfsupporting, 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 Howe Island Board of Control, the Savings Bank Commission, the Metropolitan Water Board, the Hunter 1 District Water Board, the 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 Gov- . ernments, and this has prompted the comment that Ministers of State are no ' longer prepared to shoulder the responsi- j bilities of their office. It seems to have ■ become the practice to pass the real ' work on to some other body. 1