A COSTLY COMMISSION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 892, 11 August 1910, Page 4

A COSTLY COMMISSION.

."MAGNIFIED PARLIAMENTABT <■- ' PICNIC.'/ ."I think .that the Timber Commission should not hare been packed with so many legislators," remarked Mr. T. B. Taylor, M.P. for Christchurch North, in '• the House of Representatives, yesterday. , Mr. Taylor went on to say that a busk:.' , ness firm could have got sufficient information; oh the point for' one-fiftieth' of; the cost. He thought that the matter '. should have originally been referred to a Parliamentary ' Committee instead of . to a commission. : The commission . was -; really a magnified Parliamentary. picnic, plus a little of the lay element to level it down or rather'to level it up. Mr. Mander: It would have killedsyon to havu followed us. (Laughter.)'Mr. Taylor, said ,that sufficient couM 1 ' have been obtained in Wellington from . the heads of .various Departments and a' dozen or so representatives of employers' ■ and employees' associations. It waa ' quite useless for/such a .commission to. roam' all over the country. . He did not.-■ believe that any member had, ever read : the whole of the report which' had been submitted. No man who did so had any right, to be in i the House; (Laughter.) He would regard any man who' would wade through tho hundreds of pages of ■■'.•' piffle that it contained as being a fit . subject for somo other institution rather than Parliament. \. • 1 •Replying,, later, to-an interjection byMr. Jennings,] wlto was a. member of tho commission, Mr.'Taylor said he thought ! that it was .up to members who were on tho commission-to give the other mem. bers a good deal of information. It was his opinion that.no member had .any right to take payment for work of that • • character! They should, he thought, have . tackled tho work during, tho course of a session, l '.'.'. < ' . In tho'. course of further remarks' Mr. Taylor said: "I would like to road a gem from it: 'Careful and thorough investigation of - tho methods adopted ut the mills and iV the bush we visited which were regarded as typical. nf ths conditions prevailing in various parts of. New Zealand has shown that the nature uf the country where the mill is situated and the distance from a railway siding materially affected.tho cost of timber in each case,' "■■ "What a stupendous . as.<ertion!"' commented Mr. Taylhr, who - ., added: "1 think 'thai .commission might .have 1 spared itself the energy to mako such a' statement and the country tho cost of printing it." (Laughter.)