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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 16 September 1913, Page 5

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ESTIMATES BEING HELD UP

THE OPPOSITION ACTIVE. (By Telegraph--Preas Association-) WELLINGTON, Last Night. The House of Representatives in committee on the Estimates, resumed at 2.30 p.m. to-day. Mr G. Witty moved the reduction ofthe vote of £10,073 for the Auckland Mental Hospital by £IOO, as an' indication that the. accommodation and s€aff were insufficient for the requirements of -the institution. Mr W. D. S. Mac Donald said they were no further ahead now than on Saturday. They had no reports of the Departments under discussion. The reports did not belong to the Minister or the Government, hut to the House-. If they were going to prevent maladministration and corruption, if was necessary to have official reports on the "actual conditions and needs of the institution. He argued that, irrespective of party support, every member of the House should be independent enough to demand the officers' report. Mr G. W. Russell commented on the fact that the senior medical assistant of the Avondale Mental Hospital received only £3OO a year, and he compared that office wjtK an appointment recently madtfffcy the Government at £6OO per year, the appointee .having had neither Univer-. i sity education nor '.'degrees to' support him, : . '■ >.' The Hori. F. M.. B. fisher said' the members of the Opposition had extended themselves on the. iniquity of paying a professional £3OO a Wear, when they themselves put an item on last year's Estimates for a junior medical officer for £250. Mr Russell: I criticised officer, not the junior) The Hon Mr Fisher said the officers of the institution were getting more under tire present Government's Esii* mates than they did 'under the Mackenzie Government's Estimates.. The committee resumed at 7.30 p.m. The arguments adduced were on lines similar to those of Saturday and this afternoon, no new ground being broken. <■-, ■ ■ "Mr c T. M. Wilford moved to get the' Speaker's ruling on the ruling of the Chairman, but not being present when the question was put, it was lost on tE§ voices, no one apparently desiring the presence of the Speaker.

The debate \yas then continued. At 11.30 p.m. the procedure was similar to that"which has prevailed -throughout the extended proceedings. All sorts of ,peculiar arguments have been advocated in the support of 'the contention that the House' should be supplied* with departmental reports before going on wi£h the Estimates. [ In. the meantime 1 the Government I is sitting' tight.