The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1910. PUBLIC WORKS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 69, 21 March 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1910. PUBLIC WORKS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the vcrong that needs resistance, For the future iv the distance, And the good that ux can do.

i It would be very interesting to know (just what the .Minister for Public Works thinks about the Government's public works policy. Three members of the Cabinet have recently admitted that they do not think the policy of piecemeal construction is sound, and Sir Joseph Ward has frankly stated that the Government follows this line because if it did not it would not get the support of Parliament. Does Sir William Kraser agree with these admissions?Supposing he was independent altogether of Parliamentary responsibility, and was simply the managing director of a great business concern, what would be his attitude towards the problem of railway construction in Sew Zealand, and especially construction in the North Island? We wonder how often and how deeply the needs of the North Island 6trike Sir William on the many trips of inspection that he so conscientiously

makes, and how much ho is impressed by the difference between the policy of building a little here and a little there, of keeping several lines moving forward slowly, and the policy that any wellmanaged business firm would follow, that of concentrating on the main and pushing them through as quickly as possible. When a line is through it pays better than when there is a gap between railheads or railhead and the natural

terminus, besides opening up country and serving more- settlers. There is, for instance, the East Coast railway. It >s

obviously a work of the first importance. It taps a rich district, much of which is 'badly provided with communications, and it will link this area with Auckland and the main railway system of the North Island. Yet many years have passed since the railway was started from the Gisborne end, and it is some considerable time since a start was made with construction at Tauranga. At the northern end trains have been running to Waihi for years, but construction work has advanced only a few miles past that town. Direct communication with Taranaki via the Main Trunk-Stratford line is a thing of the vry distant future if the present rate is kept up; yet this line was in the first schedule of public works in Sir Julius Vogel's scheme away biwk in the seventies. So with the lines north of Auckland; they arc the result of a patchwork policy. For some years past the traveller has been able to reach the Bay of Islands from Whangarei by rail, but it may be as many more years before he is able to go right through from Auckland to Whangarei hy the same means.

We can far less afford such a policy in the future than in the past. We floated for years on a wave of peaceful prosperity, and made money easily. But we now have to carry the burden of a heavy war debt in an impoverished world, and it is very much more important than it has been that we should

not only develop our resources, but develop them en sound lines. It must be our aim to increase our production with the minimum of waste. The Government should give a lead in this matter, and it does do so in words. It is continually preaching the necessity for economy. !>>t it put that into practice in railway construction. The economical policy is a mixture of boldness and commoisense. It consists of spending money f i ecly on the soundest business propositions, which ensure the rapid opening up of our most valuable areas of land, and the linking up of lines of communication so as to make transport as quick, as accessible, as widespread and as payable as possible. The people of Auckland must not be deterred by the cry of parochialism that is regularly raised in the South, from insisting on the speedy completion of the main lines in this province.

We should also concentrate most of our attention on the.road and railway needs of the province. We have frequently emphasised the point that tliere is not going to be nearly enough money to satisfy ali the demands for public works throughout the Dominion, and that therefore priority should be given to the most essential. Tho "New Zealand Her-

aid" obligingly illustrates this point in two articles, one published the day after tlie other. In tho first it

strongly supported a very vigorous policy of water - power development; in the second it demanded a vigorous policy of railway construction in this province. It seems to us quite impossible to get both these things in the near future. We believe that Sir Joseph Ward's warning in Parliament last year was quite justified; there will not be the money available for all railway and water-power and other demands. We

do not oppose water-power development as such, but we do contend that for this

province it is not so important as primary road and railway needs. Let us get our main railways finished, filling up the old fjaps and bringing the lines to the point of maximum return, and then we can entertain these grandiose schemes of harnessing water-power. There is a danger that in demanding too much Auckland will get too little. An agitation for very large expenditure on water-power may weaken the demand for a vigorous and business-like policy of railway construction.