The amount of the Vote for this Department is less by £1,178 than the figure of £15,024 voted for the year 1925-26. Sub-head A, covering salaries, wages and allowances, totals £12,446, which is £478 less than the Vote for last year. The reduction is due to the omission of the allowance of £150 for an additional A.D.C. This office was discontinued towards the end of last year. It is also due to the fact that the provision for two chauffeurs no longer appears on this Vote—they are supplied now by the Defence Forces and their pay is borne on the Army Vote—and to the fact that the charge for messengers and cleaners has been reduced by £520, due for the most part to the dissolution of the protective force employed at Government Buildings.
As against these reductions there are increases on account of ordinary annual increments which are offset by a reduction in bonus due to the fall of the cost-of-living figure. There is included a figure of £650 for additional temporary assistance. At the time when the Estimate was being prepared it was believed that certain additional work would arise in the Department during the year which would necessitate a temporary increase in the staff. It now appears probable that the volume of this work will not be so great as had been contemplated and it is hoped that it will be possible to effect a considerable saving under that head. Another saving on this Vote which could not be foreseen when the Estimates were being prepared is the appointment of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Executive Council to a similar post in the Department of Finance. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Executive Council, in addition to duties arising directly out of the work of that office has been engaged on a large number of Committees and Commissions. He has been a member of the Army Pay Commission, of various committees dealing with pensions questions, and for the past six or seven months has had to devote a very large proportion of his time to the Military Service Pensions Board. He will continue to act on that Board until it has concluded its labours. There is a reduction under Sub-head B of £250 on the previous year's figures. The expenditure up to 31st March was, approximately, £300, and on this basis the provision of £500 might appear to be excessive. It should be remembered, however, that this sub-head bears the cost of the travelling expenses and subsistence allowances of any Minister or Parliamentary Secretary when he travels on the general business of the State rather than on the business of his own particular Department and that a certain amount of expenditure is likely to be incurred in connection with the conference due to take place under Article 6 of the Treaty and the Annex thereto. The charges under this head often arise from contingencies which it is impossible to foresee, and hence it is not possible to estimate with the same degree of accuracy as in the case of other sub-heads.
Incidental expenses shows a reduction of £100. As regards telegrams and telephones, from figures supplied by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs it was ascertained that the sum to be provided for the portion falling to be borne by this Vote of the total charge of telephone services in the Government Buildings was £210. The expenditure on telegrams to 30th November was £20 12s. 2d., and to March 31st approximately £40. Forty pounds is, accordingly, being provided for the current year. As regards the motor-car allowance, I mentioned last year that it was proposed to have that a separate item. In the Estimate which was submitted to the Finance Department last year it was estimated that something like 25,000 miles would be covered during the period. As far as I can judge from the figures, it is calculated that four-fifths was either on State work, that is, on journeys of State, or work for distinguished visitors who would honour us with their presence here, and I have the use of the car. It was calculated that allowing for depreciation a sum of something like £300, that the cost to myself would be about £150 in the year, leaving £500. The accounts for the full year have not yet been sent in, but as far as I can judge they were approximately correct. The only reference I have to make to it is on the basis that the depreciation was for £300, and the depreciation in the coming year would not be so great. From an examination of the usual figures in connection with depreciation, in the case of an ordinary car covering 7,000 miles or probably 10,000 a year the depreciation in the first year is 30 per cent. That is, the car would be worth 70 per cent. of its cost at the end of the year, but in the case of a car covering 25,000 miles, the depreciation would be much more than 30 per cent. I think it was calculated at 40, 42 or 43 per cent., which was how the £300 was arrived at. References have been made to this car, that it did no other than private work which the ordinary person would have engaged in. That is not the case. In that connection I should say that in the year 1924 there was a period of something like two or three months in which I did not see the car once, as it was engaged on other work during that period. I think that completes the various items.
