RAILWAY COMMISSION

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16309, 10 August 1917, Page 4

RAILWAY COMMISSION

i REPORT ON ROLLING STOCK. SHARP CRITICISM IN HOUSE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) - WELLINGTON, Aug. 9. Mr Hemes, Minister of Railways, tabled to-day the report of the Railway Rolling Stock Commission. Mv "Wilford, in tho course of a highly denunciatory speech, stated that the setting up of the Commission was a wanton and reckless waste of money. Tho Minister had been reckless with his funds, and was not warranted in setting up the Commission, which had only started out on a, lengthy roving mission after the railway officials throughout the country had been apprised some seven months before that a Commission would he around later.

Mr Voitch lield that the whole thing was a, magnificent farce. The Commission was set up purely for the purpose of white-washing the General Manager for Railways (Mr Hiley). It was simply marvellous, he said, what the people of New Zealand would put up with in regard to wasto of public money. The Commission had not called one guard or shunter, the people who were in the host position to give evidence regarding the rolling stock. The ~,en whose evidence would have been of any use to the Commission were never called. The whole thing was absurd and ridiculous in the minds of men who had to do with keeping the rolling stock in order. The Commission did not prove or disprove ono assertion made in Parliament or out of it. Mr Hindniarsh asked why the Crown Law Office was not asked to supply counsel to conduct the case for the Commission, instead of a man who was a partner of a member of 1 the Ministry. He concluded that Mr Myers, who represented the Crown on the Commission, was a partner in the firm of Bell, Gully, Bell and Myers, the senior partner of which was a member of the Ministry. Mr McCallum: He is unpaid. Mr Hindmarsh said that if he were unpaid h would bo better to have a paid man, than that such things should go on. Mr Massey objected to that statement, holding that it was a gross impropriety. Mr Hindmarsh insisted that he was • offering no insult to Sir Francis Bell, who was a most honourable man, bur the principle was wrong.

Mr Herries said it was a scandalous thing that .such motives should bo imputed to Sir Francis Bell, who had told him that during his tcrnt of office as Minister of tho Crown he would not take one penny piece from the firm wltieh carried his name. Mr Hemes went on to ridicule Mr "WiJ ford's assertions, pointing out. that he had merely given him what he asked for. a Roval Commission.

Mi- "Wilford: I asked for an, inquiry by a.u expert. Mr Hemes: You got what you asked for. Ho was glad to find that the most able men in the country had found that the railways, which carrier: practically the whole of the population of the country from time to lime-, were in an efficient state. Ho defended Mr Hiley. whose record, he said, would be enhanced b.v what ho had done for the Railways and the Defence Department.