WARRANT SIGNED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20513, 3 September 1936, Page 8

WARRANT SIGNED

MR LEE’S STATUS CONFIRM* E (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 2. The first official appointment of a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in terms of the Recent Civil List Amendment Act was made to-day, when the Governor-General’s warrant giving that status to Mr J. A. Lee was signed by Viscount Galway, and Mr Lee himself took the oath of office required by law. This announcement was made to-night by the Prime Minister. Mr Lee will take full control of the Government’s House Construction Scheme, although in this connection he will be associated with the Minister of Finance (Hon. W. Nash) who is responsible for the administration of the State Advances Corporation and the housing account and who, as such, will be Minister in cb"i'Re of the new activities. Mr Lee’s official title is to be Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance. Previously he acted as Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Prime Minister, but in the absence of legislative authority that was really only a courtesy title. However, Mr Lee the first to hold the new office in the New Zealand Parliament officially as well as unofficially. Almost from the time that the Government assumed office Mr Lee has been entrusted with the task of investigating housing schemes and planning details of the Government policy in this connection. As already stated by the Prime Minister, a f”H statement of the Government’s house construction policy Is to be made in the near future, and presumably the wav will then be clear for active operations under the direction of Mr Lee and Mr A. Tyndall, the recently appointed director of house construction incorporate.