WARM DENIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 226, 23 September 1936, Page 10

WARM DENIAL.

POLITICAL RAILWAYS. NOT BUILT BY GOVERNMENT. J (By Telegraph'.—parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. In replying to criticism of the Public Works Statement in the House of Representatives to-night the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Semple, said that his Government had been accused -by members of the Opposition of building political railways. The fact, was that his Government had not started one of those so-called political railways. Mr. H. G. Dickie (National, Patea): You supported them, though. Mr. Semple: No. Some of these political railway lines were started away back in the Tory regime of years ago. The Westport-Inangahua line was not Started as-a result of the votes of Labour members. It was started by the Seddon Government thirty years ago. The Minister went on to say that it was a most amazing example of presumption on the part'of the Opposition to accuse members of the Government of tinkering with political railways. When the present Government took control it found that over £0,000,000 of borrowed money had been invested in railway lines which had been stopped and the taxpayers of the country had been called upon to pay £2,543,000 in interest. The Government had either to go on .paying that tremendous amount of interest without any passible return whatever, or it had to endeavour to create assets. There, had been confusion and chaos so far as the railways of the Dominion were concerned, and tens of thousands of pounds of public money had been deliberately and wilfully squandered. Over £3,000,000 had been spent on the Napier-Gisborne line, and one year's interest on that amount would have completed the line as far as Wairoa so as to enable the public service to be operated-. Instead of that the job had been stopped,- and it hadcost ; the country £100,000 to put the line, that liad been laid back into a decent state of repair. The Minister said that the history of the past showed that there had always been agitations against the completion of railways. In the case of the piel'cing of the Otira Tunnel there had been protests from all over New Zealand, but who would say to-day that the work should not have been completed ? No railway, so far as lie knew, had paid right away, but it was a well-known fact that development followed railway construction. He was satisfied that that would be the case so far as the Napier-Gisborne line was concerned.