THE ESTIMATES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1533, 31 August 1912, Page 6

THE ESTIMATES.

FIRST-ITEM DEBATE. SURVEY OF CROWN LANDS. The House went into Committee on the Estimates at 2.55 p.m. On.the first item, Sir JOSEPH -WARD (Awarua) said he would speak of the survey oi Crown lauds. It had been suggested that there had not been much activity in this work for some time past. He thought that there might be need for further expedition, but he wished to stato that in the years from 1906 to 1912 there was an average staff of over 80 surveyors retained, a-fld that tho total area ot Crown acres surveyed was 2,777,551, and of Native acres 1,730,019. It was a mistake to suppose that there had not boen considerable activity in this branch of lands work, anil that surveyors were being driven out of New Zealand because there was no work for them to do. As a matter of fact, the number of surveyors in Auckland was greater than at, any previous time in the history of tho Department. , Mr. \V. C. BUCHANAN (Wairarapa) suggested to tho Minister for Lands that a change should be made in the method of surveying lands for settlement areas, by which the surveyors employed should bo properly qualified for that special work. A great deal of money had been lost to settlers by laying off roads in i wrong places. Some of the roads laid 1 out were of impossible grades. One road ; had been laid off in a block in his own [ j district at a grado of one in three. An [ enormous amount of filling and cutting -1 would bo ncccssary to make a road Ilk?

that practicable. It was anything but creditable to the Government that these blocks woro laid otT as thoy had been. Thousands of pounds had been lost owing to blunders like this. He hoped the Minister would see that.(ho main lilies of roads in blocks would bo planned by the road engineer. It mast be obvious that the training" of a surveyor did not fit him for laying oil roads in difficult country. A Standing Rule, The Hon. I!. M'KENZIE (Motueka) said that tho member l'or W'airarapa must liavo been talking of tho time when ho was a boy or at any rato of a period 25 or SO veal's ago. The lion. member must know that all field surveyors were under the control of the district surveyors, and that tho latter in turn were under the control of the Surveyor-General. Since the Liberal party eaino into power in IS9I it had been a standing rule to prohibit steeper grades than ono in fifteen and a half. Where steeper grades were unavoidable the surveyors and engineers had to report to the heads of the Departments. He was quite aware that in tho early days roads had been made on all sorts of grades. . Mr. Buchanan said that he had lnmself brought under the notice of the lion, gentleman when lie was Minister that a road liad been made 011 a grade of one in nine 011 ono of the blocks recently settled by the Government. The Hon. K. M'Kenzie said that it was quite possible that tho lion, gentleman might have brought a caso under his notice mhere a grado of one in nine liad been allowed. There must havo been somo very good reason for such a grade being allowed. 3lr Buchanan: Certainly not! s Mr. M'Kenzie said that the SurveyorGeneral was most likely to know how a block would cut up to the best advantage. Mr. Buchanan remarked snbsequcntly tliat ho had brought'the matter of road grades up when Mr, M'Kenzie was Minister for Public Works. He would ask tho ex-Minister to accompany him and be convinced by ocular demonstration that what lie bad'said was correct. There were cases in his district of roads 90 badly laid that they would be a handicap for all time on the settlers who had to use them. There were roads which would stand as a monument to the bad work done by tho. Lands Department in laying them out and of the 'Public Works Department in making them. Mr. M'Kenzio said that it was always a pleasure to travel with the member for Wairarapa, and that he would accept his invitation. What Was the Net Result? Mr. G. W. RUSSELL (Avon) said that he understood that the Estimates had come unaltered from the Public Accounts Committee with the exception, of somo small items in the Defence Estimates. What then was the net result' of "this great booming," -that at last, after 20 years, a Ministry was in' liower which was prepared to havo its Estimates revised by the-Public Accounts' Committee?.: What was the net - result? ' First of- -all, the Estimates were those, .--preparec] by the Mackenzie , Government These Estimates had been submitted to .a specially packed committee—(Oh, 110!)— representative in a, largo, majority of the dominant party. These Estimates .. had been scrutinised by this packed committee —he said it was a packed committeeMr. Lee: Because you were not on it. Mr. llussell said that there was a strong majority of Ministerialists on tho committee. Mr. Lee: There generally is! Mr. Russell said he was not making any personal reference to himself, although for two years lie had been chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. ,The Government was tfavellin" as gingerly as a cat on hot brifcks. Having, absorbed the policy of the previous Government, the present ..Administration . had now absorbed their financial proposals. The present Ministry was not in oftico by tho will of the people. Ho congratulated its members upon tho methods and strategy by which they had attained office, but, although they might get there legitimately, eventually, they had not done so yet. 110 wanted to ask tho Primo Minister what becafno of a speech made by him last year in which he said that the cost of Government during tlio last five years had increased 1 by two millions, at tlie rate of ,£400,000 or i 500,000 a year. Tho Government had now brought down Estimates which provided for an increased expenditure for the year of .£454,000. The Government liad not been compelled to adopt the financial proposals of its predecessors. The Financial Statement could have been held back for a week, and Bills gone on with. Instead, the.Government had taken up the Estimates of the Mackenzie Administration, and now it. had .to stand tho responsibility. Tho totals of the different classes in the Estimates showed that there had been n natural and normal increase in the expenditure of each Department—an increase which no Government could do without. 'The Government criticism of previous Governments liad broken down ignominiously. He thought the Government should havo checked the Estimates and brought forward a new set. The Government had not only stolen tho late Government's policy, stolen their finances, but now, when the Prime Minister camo from the country with a mandate for economy, he could not reduce the expenditure Estimates, which were £150,000 more than the Ward Government had required. Extravagance. Mr. J. 13. HIKE-(Stratford), said tho hon. gentleman had rushed in where angels feared to tread. The committee had not been able to do very much, but it had done at least something. It had been shown that thero was extravagance in some of the Departments. In somo Departments the committee had found that it had been the practice to give holidays on special occasions, and all those who stayed at work received double pay. It was revealed during the examination that this had happened in the Printing Department on one occasion, and somo thirty took tho holiday, while 400 remained at work, and drew double pay. Another item which had been investigated was travelling expenses, but individual items could not bo traced. The committee were not able to recommend the reduction, but they had suggested to Ministers responsible that these amounts should bo cut down in future. It had been discovered, for instance, that Government officials who could travel by train would take a motor-car to expedite travel. When they returned they did not go to work usually. These woro things that he should expect the Reform Government to rectify.