APPOINTMENT DEFENDED

Chronicle (Levin), 8 October 1949, Page 5

APPOINTMENT DEFENDED

■ Press AssaciationJ

Rehab, Chairman Who Is Contesting Seat .

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WELLINGTON, Octooer 7. 4 spirited cieience of a politieal appointment to the Hehabilitation Lpard wag made by the _ Minister (Mr. C. 1'. Skinner), dnring consideratiop of. the Renabilitation Bstiui' ates, in the House this afternoon, . Mr. S. W. fcjmith (Nat., Dobson), said t'he chairman. of the Jarm Advxsory committee of. the Rehaoilitation Board, wno drew a saiary of £850 yearly, had recently oegun to contest in the Labour mterests an electorate which he iost- in .1943, Mr. bmith said tkis man's appointment to the Board had been a politieal one, and asaed if he were .still drawing his saiary as a Board, member whne iignting tne eiection campaign. VVhicn came first? The tlouse was entitled to an explanafion " of where this person stood, and to what extent i w ere politics being mixed with Reliab-. ilitation. iiLr. bkinner said Mr. Sinith did not know his facts. The man was a prison-1 er of war in Gerruany in 1943 and contested no eiection then. Mr. fcimith: In 1946 then. Mr. iSkinner said the Board member'l concerned replaced Mr, Oullen on the. Board when Mr. Cullen became a Min-"' ister, +vir. ymith: The. Minister did have experience of farming, This man hasn 't. Mr. Skinner: He has probably as much experience of farming as the ' honourabie member. He worned on a;farrn all his life lui'tir he . went . o verseas f; in the army. . i Mr. bnuiii: Xo such thing. The Minister knbw better than that, Mr. bkinner: 1 ouviously know mc®-e than ^ the honourabie member about ; Lins matter. The man concerned has the coniidence of- the R.b.A. and has been approved by farming advisory comnuttees throughout the country. Mr. bniith; Because they have no • option. Alr. bkinner: The honourabie member : must have a very poor opiiuon of the men eiected by xariuers to Rehabilita- 1 tion committees through the country If he suggests tiia't they would not raise tlieir voiees in protest if they wished to do so. ALr. bkinner added that the originaJ appointment of Mr. Oullen to the Board was as a member of the Government, and when Mr, Oullen resigned from the Board the Government quite properly appointed a person in whom it had coniidence to preseut the Government 's viewpoint. Mr. ttimth: Another politieal appoint-

ment. Mr. Skinner: That's right. Mr. Granviiie replaced Mr* Oullen, and we had equal confidence in Mr. Uranville. To asu whether Mr. Granville, now that he is contesting the Hamilton seat, is still being paid his honorarium is going a little too far. Aa ^oon as he begms his ieave to hght his campaign his honorarium will oease. .addje'tf that Mr. Gran. ville hau travelled th^o.ughout the country re-organismg the land settieniem siue oi the Rehabilitation work and iarmers on the advisory committee under his chairmahship had complete confidence in him. Arrears in Repayments Mr Bkinner replying to other matters raised during the discussion of his Departmental Estimates, said that very few ex-servicemen assisted by farming loans were in arrears with their repayrnents. The only exceptions were those wlio had been aifected by flood or drought, and the Dejiartment had come to tne rescue of quite a number of those people. The total of* arrears at the given date in last available report was s80,(JUU, representing 1.9 per cent. of the advances, and some of thosl arrears might be of only one month 's duration. Alr. Skinner said that the argument put forward by returned servicemen working oii farms who felt they had a strong argument for jpreference in bai1'ots against those who had applied for farms but were working in cities inatead of following up farm work, was being investigated. Foresfry Management Mr. W. bullivan (Nat., Bay of Plenty), speaking to the Forestry vote, said the time had .arrived for proper forest management.. .Exotic. timber was reaehing maturity at such a rate that it must be milled and marketed in ever increasing quantities. Many mills were still cutting solely indigenous timber but which were adjacent to exotic areas could with. advantage mill up to 25 per cent. of exotic. timber if the State Forest Service would make the latter available to them on some agreed basis. Mr. Skinner said what Mr, Sullivan suggested was desirable, but most indigenous mills were not equipped to cut small diameter exotic logs. Mr. Skinner said all indigenous mills still working full -time were still receiving a State subsidy on overtime, but the subsidy had been withdrawn from exotic timber. ... He defended' the export of some native timber to Australia. Last year 6,000,000 feet of building timber was shipped to Australia, but we imported 33,000,000 feet of timber from Australia. We could not expect to get our hardwood supplies frpm Australia and sliip there only inferior New Zeaiand timbers. All New Zeaiand millers were free to export 'to Australia, providea their product was of. the requisite quality* -