A TAIHAPE SCANDAL

Patea Mail, Volume XLIII, 14 July 1919, Page 2

A TAIHAPE SCANDAL

THEORETICALLY the various departments of the State should be examples of up-to-date management for the rest, of the community and should afford business men some idea as to how busines: e.! should be run. As a matter of fact. hoAvever, there arc few busirr ,s men A\ r ho Avould care, to run their businesses as the Goa’ernment departments arc run. The Taihapc Times in a recent issue furnishes a striking illustration of this fact. According to the Times, a short Avhilc ago there Avero admirable building sites in the centre of the tOAvu valued at anything from £2OOO to £3OOO. These sections, Avhich were the property of the CroAvn, Averc to be offered for sale to 11re public and the Avay the Government Avcnt about the transaction Avas as folloAVs : On June Gth last the proposed sale Avas given tAvo lines in the local paper, and a fcAV days ago it Avas rumoured about the toAvu that Hie land Avas to be sold at 2.30 p.m. on a certain day. In consequence of the rumour the local paper sent a representative to sec Avhat Avas happening. lie Avalked over to Avhere the sale Avas to be, and to quote the Avords of the paper “he reached the spot four minutes after 10.30 a.m. and Avas just in time to hear a stranger to the tom) say ‘reserve’, the salesman having just then knocked down between £2OOO and £3OOO worth of the very finest and choicest business sites in the town for £825, not a Taihapo man being present to make an offer.” The paper continues : “We do not luioav lioav the Department Avill vicav it, but simmering it doAvn to a few Avords this is lioav avc aucav it : Tavo men came from Wellington, one to sell the land, the other to buy it, and nobody took any trouble to let anyone else knoAV anything about it. The man Avho came to sell Avas seen at 10.23 posting a small notice at the Post Office, and at: 10.34, at least, and at its loAvest value, £2OOO Avorth of building site Avas passed over lo the other Wellington man for £825. Two lines Avcre given in the Taihapc ncAvspapcr on the 6th June, and ihe authorities no doubt think that as it brought one man from Wellington to buy the sections it should have made Taihapc aAvare of the Department’s intentions.” The action of the Department is on a par Avith that of the Lands Department in this district when Education Reserves Avcre offered for sale a few years ago. !n this case the sale Avas notified perfunctorily some Aveeks before it actually took place and nothing further hoard of the matter until the sale Avas held. As a consequence the sections did not realise a fraction of their value. When advertising has to be done it Avould appear that the rule of the departmental officials is to sec lioav small the advertisement: can possibly be made, forgetting that if a thing is Avorth advertising at all it is Avorth advertising Avell. The fcAV shillings saved in the cost of an ordinary advertisement setting forth the full particulars of the sections recently offered at Taihapc have resulted in the loss of several hundreds of pounds to the State, the property fetching £825 in place of something like £3OOO, Avhich is said to be the value the ucav purchaser now places on his bargain. And this is called business management ! Truly the State, Avith its various departments, affords object lessons to any business man of the Avay that business should not be done.