REPATRIATION BOARDS.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 February 1919, Page 4

REPATRIATION BOARDS.

COST TO THE COUNTRY. A member of the Canterbury Repatriation Board recently said there were one or two matters concerning the Repatriation Boards which the public should know. There were, be said, 45 of these Boards in the Dominion, with an average membership of at least 10. These members drew at least a guinea for each sitting, and the boards could sit as often as they liked, thus every time the boards sat it cost the country £450, and the total cost for the year could be imagined. Furthermore, the boards possessed no executive functions, they were simply advisory bodies to the repatriation officer. The speaker exposed the opinion that the members of Parliament should form the Repatriation Boards, and do this work during the Parliamentary recess, without addition to their honorarium. These persons had the time to spare for the work, and the country would be put to no extra expense.