SPENDING PUBLIC MONEY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3360, 28 October 1911, Page 5

SPENDING PUBLIC MONEY.

THE SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES

VOTES TOTAL £464,372.

INCREASES IN SALARIES

CORONATION SUBSIDIES

(From our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 27. The Supplementary Estimates were brought down by Governor’s message to the House of Representatives this morning. The aggregate expenditure proposed is £464,372, comprising £327,499 from the ordinary revenue account, £119,653 from the Public Works Fund, and £17,320 from the minor State .accounts. A largo sum is absorbed by increases of salary granted to State employees in all parts of the Dominion. To provide the increased nursing staff in mental hospitals and to allow for a reduction in working hours, there is a vote of £2550, and in addition one of £IOOO for the usual increases in the salaries of attendants and nurses. The cost of the Gaming Commission requires a vote of £2250. A vote of £2OO is provided to cover the expenses of a Royal Commission to inquire jnto a compulsory insurance against sickness, invalidity, and unemployment. For the purchase of cash registers for' telegraph counters £350 is provided. On account for hire of Dickie Stamp Vending machines, £200; and for purchase of home savings banks there is a vote of £IOOO. New postage stamps are to be issued, and for the cost of the designs and dies £7OO is provided. The following votes in connection with the celebration of the Coronation appear :—Allowance to members of Coronation contingent, £1300; New Zealand Coronation presentation to the King, £450; Coronation expenses in New Zealand, £3400; New Zealand Coronation Arch, London, £1050; subsidies to local bodies, £24,000. The vote for this year’s Dominion Day celebrations is £IOO extra. Clerical assistance and other expenses in connection with the Coronation and the Imperial Conference (High Commissioner’s Office), £220. The Defence Department’s estimates include £IOO,OOO on account .of £150,000 for ordnance equipment, including ammunition, searchlight stores, field engineering equipment, etc. The votes for the Meterological Office include £SO for weather messages by wireless. Provision is made for the grants to twentythree war veterans of the amounts recommended by the Tinder-Secretary of Lands. There is a vote of £IOOO for classes at sub-centres in connection with the training of teachers. There is an echo of the Westport murder case in a vote of £244, c ‘payment to Lars Anderson of interest and part of loan of which he was defrauded by a solicitor ” Votes for additions to open railroads include £IO,OOO, for improvement of grades and alignment of lines £3OOO, for new steamer at Lake Wakatipu, and £BOO for extension of wharves at Lake Wakatipu. Other items of general interest are: Subsidv for promotion of oil industry on account of £IO,OOO, £1000; reclamation of sand dunes and dune areas on account of £IOOO, £500; completion of report on sand drift-j £3/ ; preventing sand dunes and planting marram grass, Tarras sand area, Otago, £100; Census, 1911, including agricultural statistics, £2000; Plunket nurses, £600; Captain Cook memorial, £4OO (£1 for £1), on account £100; Edward Gibbon Wakefield memorial, £IOOO (£1 for £1),, on account £IOO. A vote of £250 is included to cover the expenses of the extradition from San Francisco of William and Maud Rogers, charged with burgling a jewellery shop in Auckland. The following items appear in the estimates of the Agricultural Depaitment:—Bonus for improved method of flax dressing, £500; co-operative field experiment, £250; crop experiments, Westland, £100; destruction of rabbits on Crown lands, East Coast Rabbit Board district, £1000; co-operative fruit testing plots, £SO; guarantee on experimental shipment of apples, £IUU, spraying demonstrations and apparatus, £25; to encourage the utilisation of by-products of the dairy industry, £7OOO (on account), £750; treatment of dairv by-products, £IOOO. _ . The Estimates contain provision for increases of salaries to Civil servants. Amongst the local votes are the following:—Allowance to Judge Jones for services as Deputy-Chief Judge, £SO , compensation awarded by Native Land Court to owners of Waipiro (23), £2IS; fraudulent withdrawal from savings bank, Otoko, £l9; Tokomaru cemetery, £150; military claims, Robert Thelwall, Poverty Bay Mounted Rifles, £10; road access to run 47 Ngatapa, purchase of land, and fencing, £1520; destruction of rabbits East Coast Rabbit Board district, £1000; scenery preservation, Te *»Arai settlement, £276; Judge of Native Land Court, Gisborne, £2O increase; Registrar £ls. Tairawhiti Board clerk £lO, Magistrate £25, clerk £lO, Assistant Land Registrar £ls, Customs clerk £2O, Inspector of Factories £lO, District Surveyor £lO, Ranger £lO. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 27. Speaking on the Supplementary Estimates on the Cook Islands Vote £2142) Sir James Carroll staid, a judge of the Native Land Court was being sent to the Cook Islands to determine the disputed land question. . Replying to a question regarding increases in salaries of officials already receiving large salaries, Sir J. Ward said that out of increases -in salaries totalling over £135,000. £130,000 applied to smaller salaries men. Mr Greenslade objected to a vote of £2250 for expenses of the Racing Commission. He maintained the item was ridiculous in comparison with the work done by the Commission. Hon. G. Fowlcls objected to a vote for the Gibbon Wakefield Memorial. He said the whole idea that Wakefield had was to keep up an artificial price of land in order that wages might be kept down. He moved that a vote of £lO should be struck out.