Parliamentary Papers

trustee of the Nation, must always be in a position in which it can adequately fulfil and exercise its functions and powers. A more efficient public service may expose the State to the dangers of bureaucracy unless Parliamentary control keeps pace with the extending powers of the Executive. It is with these ends in view that we put forward the above recommendations which, for purposes of convenience, we summarise as under.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS.

(1) The Civil Service Estimates should be reclassified in nine Categories on broad objective lines.

(2) Votes should be regrouped in Classes so as to show, as far as possible, the complete functions and Expenditure of each Department.

(3) The Civil Service Estimates should in future be called the Civil Estimates.

(4) The Estimates Committee should be increased in size, so that all the Estimates may be examined every year.

(5) Members of the Estimates Committee should be excused from Service on all Private Bill Committees, and Standing Committees, if necessary.

(6) The Opposition should be entitled to select the Reports of the Estimates Committee as subjects for discussion on allotted Supply Days. Under certain circumstances the Chairman of Ways and Means should be empowered to arrange a day for the discussion of these Reports.

(7) The Estimates Committee should have power to appoint persons, from outside its own body, to serve on any of its SubCommittees.

(8) When the Estimates for any Department are under consideration, discussion should be permitted on any item (other than those chargeable on the Consolidated Fund) that is included in a footnote as being part of the total expenditure of that Department, although such items are not included in the Department's Estimate.

(9) The Rates Vote, Class I, 13, should be made more complete.

(10) The existing procedure under which the Speaker is moved out of the Chair three times on Votes for the Fighting Services, and once on the Civil Estimates should be re-considered.

APPENDIX.
INTRODUCTION.

At the present time the arrangement of Votes in particular classes does not follow any accurate rule.

The subject-matter of the various Votes was originally the guiding principle. With the great increase in the number of Votes during the last few years even this principle has been abandoned, and the Votes have become scattered in various classes. When it was found necessary to introduce a new Vote, that Vote was placed where it seemed most convenient at the time without any regard to the Votes next to it.

It is not claimed that it would be possible to group the Votes in any order which would appear completely logical to everyone, as the position

of some Votes, such as the Department of Overseas Trade, is a matter of opinion. What we have sought to do is, by a re-arrangement involving as few changes as possible, to group the Votes so as to present a more accurate view of the total cost of particular services.

There seems to be but little reason in a system which, for instance, places the Foreign Office as Vote 5 in Class II, and the Diplomatic and Consular Services in Vote 1 Class V. The connection between these two Votes is so intimate that to leave them separated greatly increases the difficulty of rapidly understanding the expenditure on the service as a whole. Yet this clarity of statement is essential if expenditure is to be efficiently controlled.

We have further endeavoured to keep a balance both in the number of Votes placed together, and in the amount to be accounted for lest any class should be overweighted.

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE.

Note.-Asterisk denotes New Votes in 1926 without a reference to 1925-26 Classification.