The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1912. NATIONAL ECONOMY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1344, 23 January 1912, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1912. NATIONAL ECONOMY.

« The British Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, gave a favourable reply lasts month to a deputation of members of Parliament advocating the setting up of a Standing Committee oil the Estimates. This should prove ail important means of giving the House of Commons a more effective control than it has exercised for some years past over public expenditure. Formerly the House of Commons spent a great deal of time over the Estimates, and Ministers, knowing that any proposed increase of expenditure might do called in Question, were ready with their dcence. When Departmental _ heads put before them suggestions involving fresh expenditure, they carefully examined the matter to see how the requisite vote could be justified in the House. Excellent as all this was, it had one grave disadvantage. It was apt to take up so much of the time of the House that other nccessary work could not be properly attended to. To remedy this inconvenience, the House adopted in 1597 a Standing Order limiting the tiiau that might be spent on Estimates to twenty days in each session. This had the effect intended, but it also had another, and a bad result. Ministers, secure in the knowledge that by 10.30 p.m. on the twentieth day all tho supplies they were asking for must be granted without further query or debate, dropped into the easy-going ways so natural to Ministers who have no real criticism to meet. It has been computed that the ■ sums voted at tho end of the time limit,_ without any explanation being given or asked for, have amounted in the last five years to £2G1,000,000, or an average of over £52,000,000 a year. This process has been recognised by men of all parties as a serious evil. In 1902, Mr. Balfour, . who was then Prime Minister, consented to the appointment of a Select Committee to report as to means for enabling the House to examine morn effectively the details of public expenditure. That coiiimittee made recommendations somewhat similar to the proposal which is now to the front, but nothing- practical whs done. Meanwhile, the growth of the public Departments and the accompanying increases of the Estimates nave enormously enlarged the possibilities of waste, Members of all parties have at last taken the matter up. The spokesmen of the deputation which waited on Mr. Asquitii were two Liberals, one Conservative, and one Labour member, and they presented a memorandum signed by 224 members of Parliament. Mr. Asquith could, hardly do other than conscnt to tho course they urged upon him, but ho laid down certain conditions which, however, tho leaders of the movement had already recognised as proper an'd necessary. These conditions were : That all consideration of. questions of policy must be excluded; that the control of tho House of Commons over Estimates must be strictly unimpaired; that Treasury control must not be interfered with; and that Ministerial responsibility must be in no way diminished. ' It is a little curious to find "control of the House of Commons over Estimates" laid down as a "condition," for this is tho chief object of the scheme. "Ministerial responsibility," too,_ should become more real when Ministers know that they may have to answer for their Estimates to a House which has before it a careful report upon a detailed examination of the votes asked for. Doubtless what Mr. Asquith feared was that the Select Committee might assume some of the controlling power which should belong to the House, the Treasury, and the Ministry, but which, in practice, has come to be exercised almost entirely by the last-named two. It is conceded by the promoters of the movement, among whom Mr. MurraV Macdonald, M.P., has been the most prominent, that, owing_ to Parliamentary and administrative exigencies, the' work of the committee could rfot have much effect upon tho decisions of the House as to the Estimates actually examined by the committee in any one session. Its reports would be chiefly the following year s_ Estimates came to be framed . and discussed. It is further conceded that owing to the great bulk to which the Estimates have grown, the committee might wisely confine its detailed examination in any one year, to one or two classes or Departments. But there seems to be no doubt that, within its inevitable' limitations, the committee could do a great deal towards introducing a more businesslike tone into Departmental affairs, and securing for the taxpayers - something like their money's worth. The evil which this proposal is designed to remedy in the British Parliamentary system as at present, operated exists in quite as extreme a form in this country. It is true that there is in tho New Zealand Parliament 110 fixed limit to the time that may be spent in discussion on the Estimates, but Ministers have obtained the same result of burking discussion by not bringing down the Estimates until tho session is so far . advanced that members have begun to think of tho end, and by insisting upon having them dealt with in the early hours of (the morning. Wo have again and again drawn attention to the disgraceful'spectacle of the House at 3 or 4 o'clock on a • spring morning, with a bare quorum of members present, and half of them asleep, while the people's \ money is being voted away at the I rate of thousands of pounds a minr u_te. That sort of thing leads to ■ higher taxation,_ because so long as ' human_ nature is imperfect, public i expenditure which is not carefully I watched and criticised will go ui) • and up. Under the unworthy Ministerial domination of the last few ' years, the only protests against this ' form of Parliamentary degeneration ; have come from the Opposition side. . but now that the l'eform party will i bo no longer in opposition, we hope i for better things.