“MERELY RUBBER

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 22

“MERELY RUBBER

MINISTERS OF THE CROWN.

WELLINGTON, October 11.

Some of the problems facing New Zea;, land at the present time were dealt with t by speakers in the Legislative Councilj this morning when the Imprest Supply, Bill was under consideration. A thought-, ful contribution to the debate was made, by Mr J. A. Hanan, who pointed to what ; he considered to be weaknesses in the. system of government. Mr Hanan drew, attention to the extent to which the, people of the Dominion found employ-' ment in the public service, and said that one in every 25 of the population was, paid by the State. New Government departments were being created all the. time, and more and more powers were being taken out of the hands of local bodies. It was no exaggeration to say that the civil servant governed the country. Many Ministers of the Crown were merely rubber stamps. Mr Hanan saill the Government should not be concerned about roads and bridges, but there should be a system of decentralisation. District councils should be set up to administei' to the needs of particular districts. He was not advocating a return to the system of provincial councils, but he did think it would be a wise step to, establish district councils. Better work would be done on account of local supervision.

Making brief reference to the rail-, ways, Mr Hanan asked what the results, had been under the system of political control. Were they to continue on in the same way or were they poing to profit by the lessons of the past? He congratulated the Deputy Leader of the Council (Mr R. Masters) and those associated with him on the Railways Commission on the courageous report which they had presented. What they wanted to-day in their public life was fearlessness, moral courage, and a development of a sense of national duty. New Zealand was a wonderful country, and he did not think there was any need for panic so far as the future was concerned, but the people would have to work. When a man’s business failed to pay he did not sit down and bemoan the fact. He set to work in an endeavour to build the business up again. That was what New Zealand would have to do. Expenditure, both private and public, would have to be curtailed.

Sir James Allen supported the remarks by Mi' Hanan, What was needed, he said, in members of Parliament was courage to say No when they believed that a thing was not right. Dealing with the railways, Sir James said that he believed he could say that there was not one railway under construction at present that could be justified. There was room for a great deal of decentralisation and the placing of more powei’ in the hands of the local authorities. The Prime Minister and his colleagues should not be concerned with roads and bridges, but should still be able to devote their attention to matters of international importance. Sir James agreed that a good deal of expense could be saved in the civil service by an amalgamation of departments. There was room for a higher standard of efficiency in all branches of work, fox' only in that way could the costs of production be reduced.

Replying to the debate, the Deputy Leader' of the Council said that if the opportunity offered he would he pleased to give the Council an opportunity of discussing the report of tlxe Railways Commission. It was highly desirable that questions of the day should be discussed by the Council, and he regretted that in the past the Council bad not taken fullei - advantage of its opportunity when the Imprest Bill was before it. He agreed with what had been said about the desirability of relieving the Prime Minister of some of his duties. The Prime Ministei' was engaged in dealing with road board matters when he should be devoting his attention to national and international problems. Dealing with the proposed appointment of a judge to the Arbitration Court to deal with compensation cases, Mr Masters said there could be no doubt that the Arbitration Court was overworked. However, the Government was not anxious to increase expense if it was not necessary to do so.