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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

"Vote Shuffling."

"Vote Shuffling."

The detestable practice of "vote-shuffling" is done under the notorious "Public Revenues Act Amendment, 1900," section 4 of which provides that "the moneys available in respect of any vote may be transferred in aid of any other vote in the same class,"—that is, from one railway to another, from settlers' roads to goldfields' roads, and actually from roads for settlement to the salaries of the employees of the department. (This paying of salaries out of the Public Works Fund instead of from revenue is another piece of Seddonian "strong finance.") Formerly no such transfer could be made unless the whole work had been completed and paid for and there was still an amount in hand. Now tens of thousands of pounds are transferred at Mr. Seddon's own sweet will.

Here is a list of some of these shuffles:—

£1,500 from roads for settlement to departmental salaries, etc..

£7,500 from roads for settlement to goldfields roads.

£7,000 from Volunteers and Militia to the vote for miscellaneous expenses of the department.

£10,000 Midland Railway to purchase railway material.

£5,000 Midland Railway to Paeroa-Waihi Railway.

£6,000 Midland Railway to Gisborne-Karaka Railway.

In all these cases the purposes for which the money was voted by Parliament was ignored. The principle of making any Premier independent of Parliamentary control in these matters is absolutely rotten. One of the first planks in the Opposition platform is the repeal of this and other obnoxious provisions of the "Public Revenues Act. 1900."