SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES

Evening Star, Issue 22465, 9 October 1936, Page 10

SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES

TOTAL OF £1,718,289 MILLION FAR RAILWAYS AND HIGHWAYS [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, October 8. The Supplementary Estimates, involving votes totalling £1,718,289, were introduced in the House °1 R«i )rcsc f lt: , 1 ' tives this afternoon. They include £258,455 for consolidated revenue, £424 275 for public works and roads, and £1,035,559 for the separate accounts, including railways and main k*New Zealand’s centennial celebrations are forecasted in the votes, there being a preliminary item of £IOO. Another vote shows that the cost t 0 the Government departments of the celebrations for the late King George was £6OO. . . , , Provision is made for district centennial celebrations being subsidised on a £3 for £1 basis, Riverton securing £loo and Moeraki £IOO. ' Tiie marine votes include £BOO for fresh-water fisheries research. In a vote of £450 for the expenses of the representative of the British Ministry of Labour on his visit to New Zealand it is explained that the invitation was sent by the New Zealand Government, and the visit was expected to last six weeks. , , . ~ 4 grant of £3OO is made to the widow of Mr P. S. K. Macassey, former Crown Prosecutor at Wellington. Defence Estimates totalling £18,436 include £5,000 as the expenses incidental to aircraft landing grounds, which supplements the public works grant. There is also £IO,OOO for buildings and the construction of aerodromes. . , , In view of the coming readjustment of electoral boundaries following the recent census, £SOO is provided for representation commission expenses. Lands votes include £6,800 for the labour cost of the development ot Crown and settlement lands. In making provision for £6OO tor couipensation for stock in connection with the eradication of Johnes disease among cattle, it is explained this means in some cases the isolation of farms, control of the sale of infected stock, and in some cases destruction with compensation. Herd testing is being further assisted by an additional vote ot £3,000, which will be paid to the Dairy Board. Ragwort eradication involves two votes in the Agricultural Department, £41,000, which is partly recoverable, and £26,000 as payment to the Employment Promotion Fund for this work. The newly organised National Safety Council has a vote of £SOO, while additional activities of the Transport Department involve a further £1,500 to enable inspectors to examine goods and vehicles. Inquiries into the operation of goods services and taxi services are expected to involve £I,OOO. The education votes include an additional £I,OOO for alterations to schools to diminish the danger from earthquake, this work having been found more extensive than was originally estimated. Pensions concessions result in an additional £125,000 being required by the Pensions Department for old age pension; also an additional £2,000 for maternity claims from approved friendly societies.

The hydro-electric branch votes include an additional £30,000 for new works and the purchase of materials for Coleridge and Waitaki, and £25,150 for the Waitaki and Southland works, while the poll of the Southland ratepayers, which resulted in the Government acquisition of the Southland scheme, cost £350. For the Ashburton irrigation scheme an additional £25,000 is voted. Under lands for settlement £150,000 additional is required for the purchase of freehold lands, for which £75,000 was allowed in the main estimates.

New positions for telegraphists, cadets, messengers, and the training of cadets involve a postal vote of £4,000, due to the increase in business and the 40-hour week. £2,500 is also required for temporary messengers, the second division employees. The purchase of instruments by the Post Office for radio beacons for the aviation service involves a vote of £7.350.

Owing to the disallowance by the Commissioner of the provision made by the Public Trustee for bad debts, the Public Trust Office requires £28,500 for income tax in respect to the year 1935. Outstanding items in the road votes of £255.000 are £25,000 for Waitakere ridgway, and the Coronation Drive, Auckland, to which the local bodies will contribute; £25.000 for the Waiouru to Tokaanu road on the central route through the North Island : £25,000 additional for the Lewis Pass road in In: i ('ci'ni v . £25,000 for the same road in Amur! County; £12.500 for the Bruce Bay to Haast (West Coast) road; and £12,500 for the Makarova to Haast road in Vincent County.