DEPARTMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12842, 27 November 1905, Page 7

DEPARTMENT.

The present Government has clipped the wings-of thei Auditor-General by; the Public Revenues Act, said'Mr-..-Allen at Teinuka,and- they" have ,been : helped by the Public ' Accounts Committee—a packed committee. It had teen somewhat better since Mr McNabhad been chairman. It- was enough to break any man's. hejirt. the way Mr "Warburton had b6en treated. He did not audit the reyenue. accounts of the Railways,. Land; or Customs Departments, and in regard to the mines, .accounts lie always bad to attach a- "itag" -'stating that the" audit was imperfect, .because he. could not. get certain accounts: from the, officers. There bad-been-; some , strange 1 revelations made : before the Goldfields and' Mines Committee in regard to the State coal mines. The people generally understood •. that- these mines . were opened; to cheap coal, for the public.-\ But in his place in the House on the . 26th of July, the Premier said that they j were started to find. 'work . for .the un- • ■ employed. It was: a dangerous venture'to ■■ go , into- va commercial speculation. of so risky; a nature.' for such a purpose. It came .out that in order to inake the mines par the -coal had 1 been palmed' ofi on. the v ! railways, ; and in such a Condition'. that ,-if a private 7 contractor bad sent in; such coal it would liave been sent back to . hihi. .• But • because it, : was "State"'. '/coalthey' had' to accept it and make the best . , they could of it. The revelations of the Auditor-General regarding the way; 'the accoi\rit<';;oT "the coal mines had been k'eptwere pstouiiding.'' For a long" time he would not 'audit- the "balance sheet, and then in a weak- moment he consented to do so. A statement was prepared up to the 31st of March last, which was 1 proved not-to have been made from the books, and the audit was .not .wortli ji, snap of the fingers.. , t He, (Mr.. Allen) >.fed«,csubmitted',copy of..the • tojint SgcQTUifciflf! ten 'system of . "Vsflar. wf. of._ Juggling.. jj with'Pr&jaiei:., .t,i*rned j jnjfc.tj at. report,. £.i sas."- lieijag < eoosidered,' and 'feed to stonewall the, proceeding's?* sso as to prevent-. ; apy ; report, reaching th'eTJo/use. BntMrß&denck. McKenzief Of 1 Motueka, • threatened to.put it..all in- " Hansard " on the third reading ,of the Appropriation -Bill if the Report was>b,urked, and the Premier thought it wiser - to give way;' ; If tie report had not been.-.given' to the House no use could have been made of the evidence taken, but now it could be used. Mr Allen then read a number of answers given by the Audi-tor-General to the committee, in illustra- , tion-of the muddle in the coal mines accounts. Our eyes have been opened with respect to the audit-, said Mr Allen, and there has got to be a reform, and one of the objects in the policy of the Opposition i* to restore the power of the Auditor-. General, and make him responsible to Parliament and to Parliament only. (Applause.)