"THE ACID TEST"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 348, 8 October 1932, Page 5

"THE ACID TEST"

("Post" Special Commissioner) .

ECONOMY REPORT "PEOPLE WILL PUNISH US" SAYS SIR JAMES PARR TRIBUTE TO COMMISSION

V/ellington, Friday. The worlc of the National Expenditure Commission was eulogised in the Legislative Council to-day b3r Sir James Parr, who deprecated the abuse to which members of the commission had been subjected. Sir James Parr said that no Eoyal Commission in his time had shown a higher public spirit or had performed a more meritorious public service. Some critics had said that the members of the commission had not been competent and that the. report was "not practical politics," but it should j not be a question of politics at all. j It was largely a business issue. Could a country with deficit after ! deficit stand expenditure? asked Sir i James. "I agree with the majority of j tho commission's recommendations," he said. "Their report is a sorry tale of waste and inefficiency and in the j main I believe it to be true. Y7e are I all to blame for it. The report will j bo the acid test of Parliament's sini cerity. Public costs must come down. j Dopartments must be reorganised. I Tho people who are carrying the bur-- ! den of gruelling taxation and tens j of thousands on the bread line will 1 rurely punish us if we. fail to reform ! the matters so forcibly indicated by ' the commission. | "I take ofT ray hat to the commis- ! sion for its grit, thoroughness and I conseientiousness," Sir James conj cluded. ' The Hon. J. A. Hanan (Otago), } was elected chairman of committees | for the Council. On Yv ednesday the ! Council is taking the second reading i of the Religious Instruction in ' Schools Enabling Bill.