PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 24 October 1912, Page 8

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE.

CONTINUATION OF INQUIRY.

MORE INTERESTING EVIDENCE

(Per Press Association..) WELLINGTON, Oct. 23

The Public Accounts Committe-e continued its enquiry to-day, and had further evidence £S to the Remuera Road Uoard loan. C. A. Corkwell said he was clerk to the Waitemata County Council, and lived at Semuera. He was, he said, in answer to Sir J. Ward, chairman of the Remuera Road Board in 1911. The Board asked for a loan of £85,000, which was applied for in March or April, and the loan was provisionally approved in May. No political influence was used in regard to the loan. The Board simply made application, and the loan was approved. The loan was necessary for the operations of the Board. The money had to be got from somewhere, and the Board naturally got the money from the source whence it was available.

Sir J. Ward: Could you have got the mon«y elsewhere?

Witness: "No." He added that water and drainage systems were then absolutely necessary, and but for the raising of the loan and the prosecution of works, there would, in the opinion of the health officer, have been loss of life in tho district. He was a member of Sir John Findlay's election committee. On one occasion he addressed some men while rain was pouring in torrents, and he was asked if he would give them a holiday. He told the foreman he could do what he liked. He told him "they are Men, not clogs, and the b?st thing you can do is to give them a holiday." He never suggested that Sir John Findlay would pay for the holiday. He had no authority from Sir John Findlay to say he would pay for the holiday. No wages had been* paid to men outside the Board. He understood that the wages of men for that day had been paid by the Board. There was a strike among the general labourers of -Auckland, and the strike extended to the Remuera Road Board workers. Ho wanted to get on with the drainage works, and applied to the State Guaranteed Advances Department for an advance. Up to that time they had had no advance. He went to Sir John Findlay and told him.that unless they got the loan they could not go on with the work. He understood that Sir John Findlay telegraphed to Wellington urging an advance, and three days after the second ballot the Board received a portion of the loan on account.

Sir J. Ward: When you addressed the men on the occasion referred to, did you advise them to support the then Government?

Witness said he considered it would bo advisable to have that Government in power and get cheap money. The Board had other work coming on. In reply to questions by various members of the- committee, witness emphatically reiterated his belief that no Ministerial influence was used and that the loan had "not influenced the result of the election.

. To the Hon. J. Allen: Witness said it was about threo days before the second ballot that he addressed the men He suggested to the foreman that as the men were wet through, they should get <a holiday.

Mr Allen : Can you give me any instance in which the men on those works nave had holiday on full pay? Witness: They have not'had one before, a.s far as lam aware. He did not know the men whom he addressed woawreof tha reply received from Sir Joha Findlav that the loan would bo expedited. Ho did not make the r°ply public, or get anyone else to make it known amongst the men "These thing 3 get about," he added. In addressing the men he stated that the next Government would probably according to its pronounced policy' refuse any more advances. When he addressed the men he knew that the loan was assured, but lie did not say so ? To Sir Joseph Ward : Tri QaMber. long before the deputation waited on Sir John Findlay asking him to assist them in getting an advance' of £10.000. the Board had written to the Advances Board making representations as to the necessity for expediting the loan, which had then been provisionally approved, and Sir John Findlay was not in New Zealand at the time'the lqan was applied for. He had at ,no time communicated with-any Minister, in connection with an application for a loan. Several of the members of the Road Board were working for Mr Dickfion, Sir John Findlay's opponent, and no exception was taken to it. It was the usual custom for the chairmen of local bodies fo take an active interest in elections.

Mr J. S. Dickson, M.P. for Parnell, said that an employee of the Board had told him he had been advised by the chairman that ho had -better not support his (Mr Dickson's) candidature. Subsequently the employee in question resigned from his (Mr" Dickson's) committee. He knew nothing about the deputation from tho Road Board (of which he was a member) to Sir John Findlay asking him to obtain an advance of £10,000 on the loan.

To Me Myers: it was a matter of urgent necessity to prosecute the drainage and water works, which would no:/ have been carried out but for the Joan which the Board applied for. To Mr Hanan: it was not an ur^rt necessity, to get £10,000 before theVrlection. The Board had applied for an

advance of £S2OO for January, and tho Board could have carried on until then. The request for £10,000 was made to Sir John Findlay with the object of supporting Sir John Findlay's candidature. The works would not have stopped if they had not got the money. To Sir Joseph Ward: He thou>;tvt the loan was approved before he vas a member of the Board. When he became a member he annroved of the loan.

Ho did not know the amount of liabI'l ties of the Board at the tim-3 of the interview with Sir John Findlay. He knew that the employees of the Board were working in his interest during the election. He did not think that was wrong, so long as it did not intevfere with their work. He did not think it a wrong thing for the chairman of the Board to take part in the electi mv. The. eommittco adjourned until tomorrow.