NATIVE AFFAIRS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 716, 16 December 1933, Page 4

NATIVE AFFAIRS

i Although there is undoubtedly some justification for the universal demand for a Royal Commission to inquire into the conduct of the Department of Native Affairs, the suggestion made by the Auditor-General that his department should be allowed to carry out the necessary inquiries and report to Parliament, appears to be a more satisfaetory method of procedure. The officers of the Audit Department have full statutory powers to carry out all the necessary investigations and their knowledge of the ground to be traversed would give them an advantage over the more cumbersome forms of a commission. The essential thing is that a thorough and impartial investigation of the position should be carried out as soon as possible and that the findings as a result of the investigation should be made public without any official evasions. . For the rest, the Audit Department would possibly carry out the investigation quite as thoroughly as a commission and with considerably less expense to the taxpayer. There is, however, ground for the contention that the investigation should proceed considerably beyond the actuarial side and embrace all the ramifications of the department and if it is decided that this is necessary, officers of the Audit Department would be slightly beyond their scope. It should be possible, however, to give them the necessary powers to extend | their investigations into all opj erations of the department and ! to submit a report which could be tabled as a Parliamentary document.