P.S. INQUIRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 110, 22 February 1950, Page 5

P.S. INQUIRY

OFF-COURSE BETTING COST “RAKE-OFF WOULD PROVIDE” ,T, ’T ■ (P.'A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Off-course betting entered into the discussion in the course of a lengthy cross-examination,-all yesterday and again - to-day, of an Assistant Public Service Commissioner, Mr L. A. Atkinson, before the' Government Service Tribunal, which is hearing an application by the Public Service Association for increased salaries and margins.

The matter arose in the course of consideration of a statement by the Prime Minister, Mr S. G. Holland, early this month, in which he said: “I sometimes think that, if each application for expenditure of public funds had to be accompanied by a statement as to where the money was to come from ,tlie number of applications would be substantially reduced.” Mr J. Turnbull, employees’ assessor on the Tribunal, asked witness (Atkinson) if he was aware that an offcourse betting system was to be set up, at, no doubt, considerable expense. Mr Atkinson said that he was aware that one was to be established.

Mr Turnbull then asked where would the money come from? Would it not come from the pockets of the people ,as money for, any other big expenditure would come?

Witness said that the money, in the off-course betting instance, would come from the pockets of the people who were “investors,” or rather, from the “rakeoff” from their transactions.

Asked earlier by Mr. J. P. Lewin, advocate for the Public Service Association, if expenditure of a large sum on compulsory military training would tend to have an inflationary 'effect, witness replied, “To a degree, yes. Any unproductive expenditure leads that way. The fact that it might tend to be inflationary is not necessarily a barrier.” ’ Witness told the Tribunal to-day, v in reply to further questions by Mr Turnbull, that about one-third of the public servants under Commission control—-31,158 of them, exclusive of 20,000 workmen on construction jobs —were located in the Greater Wellington area, taking in Hutt Valley and Porirua, . In the Greater Auckland area, there would be approximately one-third of the number jn Greater Wellington. (Proceeding.)