I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £6,844 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31 March, 1950, for the repayment to the Contingency Fund of certain Miscellaneous Advances.
This Vote always comes at the end of the financial year, the object being to repay to the Contingency Fund certain sums issued from it since it was last replenished. The fund is set aside for the purpose of allowing moneys to be paid by way of urgent or unforeseen expenditure not met in specific Votes. The tradition has been that no payment finally comes from the fund because the fund is eventually made up to the figure at which it stood. The original sum was £20,000 and that is the figure we are making it up to again. The details as to the special payments that have been made out of the fund are set out under six headings in the Estimate.