WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1921, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ECONOMIES COMMITTEE. REPORT CONFIDENTIAL. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 28The Prime Minister’s announcement on Friday that he did not see his way to lay the report of the Economies Committee on the table of the House of ■Representatives has occasioned some surprise and much disappointment. No one seems able to recall any definite promise given by Mr. Massey on the subject, but many people had understood that the report, or, at any rate, its figures and recommendations, were to be made public. The Minister had -the document at his elbow when the deputation of business men waited upon him early in the month and during the course of his reply handed it to Mr. Shailer Weston for perusal. This was in confidence to the spokesman of the deputation, the report then being in manuscript form, but most of those present came away with the impression that later on they would have an opportunity to see its material points in print. Mr. Massey had indicated the constitution of the Committee and commended the report as one of the most valuable services' of the kind ever rendered to the State. NOT FOR PUBLICATION. But on Friday the Prime Minister, in reply to a question put to him by the Hon. J. A. Hanan, said he was afraid he would not be able to place the report on the table. He had no personal objection to doing so, but his difficulty was that a great deal of the information the report contained was confidential and it would be a breach of faith to make it public- It is easily understood, of course, that if the document is at all exhaustive it deals in some detail with the qualifications of officers and the character and value of their services. Infornfation of this nature necessarily would be confidential to the Minister, though this would not mean that an officer whose work was impugned should have no opportunity to set himself right with his dhief. But !the main facts of the report surely should be made public, as much in the interests of the Civil Service and the Government itself, as in the interests of the public. A scheme for saving five millions a year in the cost of administration cannot be regarded as the private property of the Ministry.

NEED FOR INFORMATION. While there was a strong public opinion behind the deputation of business men that waited upon the Prime Minister at the beginning of the month with words of congratulation and confidence, , it would be idle to say the country is satisfied with the progress the Government has made along the difficult road of economy and retrenchment. Mr. Massey has spoken in general terms of staffs being reduced, superfluous services being discontinued and subsidies being withdrawn, but at the ame time he has asked Parliament to make provision for an increase of nearly two millions in the cost of administration. It is true he has followed this request with an assurance that the additional sum will not be required if the economies he Js proposing to Parliament are authorised. To business men this looks very much like a reversal of the positions customarily allotted to the cart and the horse. They hold strongly that the necessary authority for the economies should have been obtained before the Estimates were framed and that the votes should have been reduced accordingly. This certainly would have been the more convincing course. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE. But whether Mr. Massey’s actual savings are to amount to three millions or to five, whether they are to be effected at once or by instalments, his task would be made all the easier by the public being fully acquainted with the facts- Presumably the Economies Committee has set out in plain words and figures where and how and when savings could be made without impairing the efficiency of the Civil Service. Mr. Massey stated to the deputation of business men that he thought the committee had rather over-stated what could be achieved. But in his speech at the conclusion of the Budget debate he declared that all it had recommended would be required. In these circumstances it seems highly desirable that the public should see the facts and figures and have an opportunity to realise their import and significance. In the present crisis nothing is of more consequence than complete confidence between the Government and the country, and this can be obtained only by candour on both sides. The Prime Minister will not be promoting this ideal by withholding information which obviously is the public’s due.