LEGATION IN U.S.A.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 208, 3 September 1943, Page 3

LEGATION IN U.S.A.

ADMINISTRATION COSTS SOARING SIR. WILL APPLETON EXPLAINS Referring to the New Zealand Legation at Washington in the course of his address at the Wanganui Opera House last night, Mr. Will Appleton, National Party candidate for Wellington Central, speaking in support of the candidature of Mr. E. J. Kirk, who is contesting the Wanganui seat in the interests of the National Party, said the cost of the legation this year is £39,979.

“The total cost previously,” said Mr. Appleton, “was £36,045 without provision for the purchase of a residence and office as at Ottawa. The cost of furnishing ’the official residence, alterations and improvements was £6536, and a car—pardon me, two cars —for the Minister—£B72. Apart from the expenditure of £5llO on ‘conveying Minister, staff and families to and from Washington on appointment, transfer, etc.,’ £2124 was also spent in 1942-43 on travelling allowances and expenses.” The total salaries paid this year to a staff of twenty, remarked the speaker, was estimated at £24,504, that sum including “location allowances.” It is significant that for a staff of 140 in London, the salary bill is only £39,461. Some comment has been made, said Mr. Appleton, as to the basis of payments to Mr. Nash in Washington. He is paid 25,000 dollars a year although the Estimates again this year gave his salary as £2OOO. The actual payment to him in New Zealand money is £7604 per annum. His of the lump srum of “location expenses” is £5604 to cover “the 'higher cost of living and allowances” according to the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. It would appear that Mr. Nash pays taxation on the £2OOO but not on the £5604. “It will also interest you to know,” said Mr. Aople'ton, “that Lieut.-Colonel W. L. Pharazyn, who was secretary of the Wellington-New Zealand Clerical Workers’ Union, and also a prominent member of the Federation of Labour before the war, receives 9000 dollars per annum. This works out at £2737. That “location allowances” may properly be regarded as portion of the salary is the view definitely expressed by the former High Commissioner'to Ottawa (Hon. Frank Langstone). On his return to the Dominion he announced that the posiTTon was worth £4OOO a year, yet his salary was given in the Estimates as £l5OO.