"MEN OF VISION."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 27, 2 February 1932, Page 10

"MEN OF VISION."

Lately the public lias been treated to the above phrase ad nauseam. Shakespeare says, "And like the baseless fabric of a vision leaves not a wrack behind." If the result of our visionary experts had had that negative result it would not have been so bad, but the practical results are widely different. Take the railway works at Otahuliu as a case in point. I don't know the exact acreage, but the soil was of the richest description. This area has been excavated to make room for all classes of new and old plant, and Penrose, as a depot, will cease to exist. At Otaliuhu one sees thousands of new sleepers stacked just as they came from the boat, and miles upon miles of new steel rails, all no doubt bought and paid for. When will these come into iise? There are millions of feet of sawn timber of all descriptions, and all classes of other timber, from kauri logs downwards. On the other hand, one sees a stack of some 150,000 tons of Australian coal, just as it came from the boat two or three years ago, and our own miners at Huntly and elsewhere are being discharged wholesale. The economic value of the workshops at Otahuliu is a very moot point indeed when tl.e terrific cost of construction and removal of plant from Newmarket is taken into account. Then, again, we have that splendid "white elephant," garlanded with flowers, the Auckland railway station, to console us for the outlay of millions, with no prospect of showing the slightest profitable return for the money invested. "Butter control" and "standardised cheese," the evolution of which have cost the country millions of monjy, lias also to be considered. There is this to bo said cf the Otahuliu business—it has provided partial work for a number of the unemployed, and this is the only redeeming feature of the disastrous affair. UNEMPLOYED.