THE PUBLIC WORKS FUND.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11278, 20 May 1902, Page 4

THE PUBLIC WORKS FUND.

Mr Hall-Jones's explanations as to the financial position of the Public Works Fond are not very clear, possibly because he does not understand the position himself. He now tills us that ahhough the total appropriation for railway construction was £602,024, the actuaE caih vote was £561,524. Mr HallJones here seems to ba uaing the word "appropriation"' in a sense different from that

in which it ia usually applied, but we tafce him to mean that he spent nearly £41,000 on railway coratroctioa in excess of the amount actually voted l»y .the House. How, vhtn, did he raaee the balance? "The " work," he tells us, "had been carried on *' in excess of the vote because he had some "permanent way material remaining from "the previous year to go -upon.'' We understand this to mean that he has'again resorted to a dodge adopted before by the Seckfon Government, that of "selling" sleepers or metals to the Railway Department. This is apparently the last effort of the Public Works Department in the matter of finance, and is equivalent to a private individual pawning his watch. We shall look with some interest a* the public accounts when they are published, to see whether the permanent way material was bought back again after the 31st March. But what becomes now of the repeated denials by the Government that the wjwk of railway construction was not stopped owing to shortness of money? It is abundantly clear that Mr Hall-Jones wasted most of his available resources during the winter, when he was unable to get much work done for his money, an<s (that in the summer he had none to go on with. The great reason for spending so much money in the winter, of course, was the fact that the House was then sitting, and it was necessary to keep the members "sweet.'' That is of much more importance to the present Ministry than getting good work in return for the taxpayers' money.