IS THERE FAVORITISM?

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1922, Page 5

IS THERE FAVORITISM?

> GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS. POSITION IN STRATFORD DISTRICT. DENIAL BY THE MINISTER. ((By Wire—Parliamentary Reporter.) { . Wellington, Last Night. “Is it the policy of the Minister of Public Works to allocate public works grants to penalise members representing other parties than his own?” This question, asked. by Mr. R. Masters (Stratford) in the House to-day, was greeted with loud expressions of disapproval from the occupants of the Government benches. When Mr. Masters had gone a little further, however, the signs of liostility disappeared. “When I have given my reasons,” the memfyer went on, “even the members •\ho are complaining will agree that I am justified in asking the question, as I will prove. I am not casting a reflection on any Minister. I have been treated most fairly and most reasonably since I have been in Parliament in he matter of our grants, but I have a Reason for asking the question, and the reason is that the Reform candidate for Stratford said last night that had he been returned to Parliament last election, he knew of his own knowledge, and could say authoritatively, that the Stratford-Main Trunk line would not have been stopped at Tahora. Members: “Oh too thin,” and “too thick.” Mr. J. Vigor Brown (who has been on ’the Reform benches only a day or two): “Would you mind repeating that? I can’t hear.” Mr. Masters: “If you had still been over here you would have been able to hear better.” (Loud laughter.) The Minister of Public Works (the Hon. J. G. Coates): “I have heard the member and I presume that that i® what the candidate said at Stratford. Well, all I can say is that it is news to me. The Government has, I think, scrupulously endeavored to carry out the allocation of public money without fear or favour. (Hear, hear.) It is the country as a whole that has been kept in view, and not any political party or any particular candidate. From what I know personally of the candidate for Stratford it seems foreign to him to say such a thing as he is stated to have said.” Mr. V. IT. Reed (Bay of Islands), referring to the telegram from which Mr. Masters had quoted the statement, asked: “Who sent the wire?” Mr. Coates: “Oh, I think the question of the member for Stratford was quite a legitimate one. because it has often been said that because a man is of a certain political color he will get plenty of plums. Whether there was any reason for saying such a thing in the past I can’t say. (Laughter.) We have tried to do justice to the public as a whole, and as far as public works are concerned we leave politics entirely out.” The Leader of the Labor Party (Mr. H. E. Holland) requested a return showing the public works expenditure in each electorate during the past three years. He believed grants had been allocated fairly, and that the return, if given, would disprove statements which Government supporters had made thathis own electorate would never have money expended on it while lie represented it. Mr. Massey replied that such a return would be most costly. Tt would also be misleading, because there was no possible comparison between the expenditure in districts which had their roads, bridges, railways, etc., all made, and districts where everything had yet to be furnished.

At Mr. J. B. Hine’® meeting at Stratford on Wednesday night. Mr. Cogar a.sked if Mr. Hine knew that the Hon J. G Coates had told Mr. J. B. Richards that there was no foundation for the statement that the Stratford electorate was suffering for its political sins. D’d Mr. Hine know that in 1917 the Minister for Public Works predicted that in twelve months’ time the railway would reach Tahora, which would remain the terminus for some year® ? Mr. Hine replied that he was aware of these facts. He had never said the electorate was suffering for its political sins. He believed in the policy of concentration, but not in the works selected. Someone in the audience asked Mr. Hine, if he could say definitely of his own knowledge that had he remained in power the construction of the railway at Tahora would not have been stopped. Air. Hine: Yes; as a Minister of the Crown T could say it would not have been stopped, or 1 would not have remained a Min ; ster.

Asked why the votes for the Inglewood nolice station and the Stratford post office had not been expended in his time, although they were on the Estimates. Mr. Hine sa-’d the war was responsible -for the delay in public works. There was no punishment meted out to the opposition districts by the Government.