PUBLIC WORKS POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 62, 13 March 1919, Page 4

PUBLIC WORKS POLICY.

Two members of the Cabinet, Mr. Wilford and Sir James Allen, have recently expressed themselves against the old policy of spreading tin; railway vote over a large number of linos. Sir James Allen i s reported as having said to a deputation in Central,Otago: ".Vow the war was over, they must enter upon a system of development. But it would not satisfy everybody, and the works most urgently required must be done first. He had never believed in the policy of doing bits of line all over New Zealand. He believed in the concentration of effort on two or three of the principle lines, and getting them completed." We have several times in the last few months warned our readers that there will not be enough money to satisfy the multitudinous claims now being made on the public purse, and we are glad to find the Acting-Prime .Minister taking the same line. It will be impossible to satisfy everybody, and if the policy of development is to be sound, works must be

undertaken in their order of importance. Sir Joseph Ward has gone much farther than Sir .lames Allen in condemning the present system of allocating votes for railways. " 1 have long ago said in this country publicly—both inside this House and out of it—that it would have paid the country to have dropped all the railways but one. and concentrated our expediture on it until it was completed," said Sir Joseph Ward last session. But in that case, he went on to say, what would be the position of members? If any member "supported a policy that postponed expenditure in his own district, "he would be.politely shown the toe of the'bootiiwhen-'t-hei nextucieotibii came round." In fact no Government, national or party, would get the support of the House for euch a policy. This is a very candid confession. It remains to be seen whether, after public condemnation by three Ministers of the present system, the coming session will see it still continuing merrily.

The weakness in a statement like Sir James Allen's, or, for that matter, Sir Joseph AVard'e, is that it pushes the main difficulty further back, the difficult}' of deciding what is the most important work. Here political pres6ure may make itself fe'.t just as much as under present conditions. The Christchurch "Prees" cays it cannot 'trust the Government either to adhere to the policy of concentration or to judge aright in deciding the order of precedence amongst the various enterprises. "The competitive agitation will continue; Auckland, for example, will not meekly accept any Ministerial policy in which the completion of the Otira, tunnel is placed first." Auckland can afford to turn the thrust aeide with a smile. Where would Auckland be today if it had not agitated for fair treatment, but had trusted to the Government's sense of justice? Auckland had to make a fues in sheer self-defence. It has no occasion to fear the results of the application of .Sir James Allen's principle, because, with the possible exception of the Otira tμnnel —an exceptional case, where a job that should nev t r have been undertaken must be finished to get some appreciable return on a vast expenditure—all the most urgent railway works are, and, for some years at least, will continue to be in the Auckland province.