PARLIAMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 October 1919, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

THE ESTIMATES. DISCUSSION IN THE HOUSE. WELLINGTON, Oct. 10_ The House‘ passed on to consider the Railway Vote of £3,575,000. Discussion orl this vote was freely availed of by members to ventilate local grieV~ ances and advocate local reqtliremcllts. Replying to questions. Mr Massey said a new timetable was ‘being preparcd, which would Come into force on December next. Under the new timetable the through train fl'om'Christchurch to Invea-cargill would be resumed.

ATTACK ON RAILWAY DEPARTMENT. T WELLINGTON, This Day. After the Telegraph Officei closed the discussion on the railway vote continued. Mr P. Fraser asked for a review of the Longton case, and urged that the Ministers veto of the decision of {he ‘Appeal Board should be abolished.

Replying to Mr Veitch, Mr Massey explained how it was that while fares 7 and freights had been increased 25? per cent._, the increase in revenue had, only been 5 per cent. This, he said, was due to additional expenditure. For instance, the bonus given to railway servants consumed £5000; extra cost coal was £25,000; and the epidemic cost the Department £IOO,OOO. Compared with the Australian railways‘«,the New Zealand lines occupied a. very favourable position_ The earning percentage of the Victorian lines was 4.19; New South Wales, 4.10; Queensland, 1.55 ‘South. Australia, 3.18; Western Australia, 2.05; Tasmania, 1.58; while New Zealand railways paid 4.65. Speaking generally Mr Massey said he was not sure we should go on -much longer with increased fares and freights. Mr Wilford, discussing the salary of £3OOO paid }O the General Manager, said the whole question was: “Is the job worth the money;” He thought it was not, and his contention was, he thought, proved by the small part which the General Manager plays in the preparation of the annual report, which report was a compilation of work in which the General Manager has no part_ For three years prior to Mr Hiley’s departure it was generally adiiiitted the railway service was unsatisfactory, and for that the present General Manager must have been more or less responsible, because Mir Hiley spent so much of his time in camps. It had been said the salary should be £3OOO, because the railways were worth £30,000,000; but if that rule was to apply the Auditor-General, Commissioner of Stamps, to say ‘nothing of many other public servants, should be‘ put on the same level as the General Manager of Railways.

Mr H. M. Herries defended ‘the running of the railways during the past »-three years on the grounds that the war made it _imposs_ible to run the service on peace conditions. As to the salary of the General Manager he eulogiesed Mr McVilly as one who gained all his experience in the local service, and he thought" the country would never approve of the policy of paying a local man less than the im'ported otficer.

Replying to questions, Mr Massey said it was the policy of the Department. to take every man back into the railway service who went to the war. Regarding the Ministerfs ‘veto over Appeal Board decisions, he_ said before that Veto could be abolished the Board would have to be reconstituted. so as to give the Department representation on it. The vote was passed at 3.35_ The following \‘ot€S were also passed, which completed the Estimates: State Forest Account £123,699; State Coal

Mines, £322’,347; Lands for Settlement, £11,118; Public Trust Office, £134,941; Gave:-nment In.':.ul'ance Lepartnlont, £78,314; Government Accident Insuxanee Department, £6900; State Fire. Office, £56,534; State ‘Advances Account, £571,008; Native Land Settlement, £3200; Scenefy Pre.*.‘ol'vation, £6356. The Housing Bill was introduced by Governor's Message and read a first time. The House rose at 4 a.m. till 7.30 on Monday.