HOW PUBLIC MONEY GOES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14503, 4 November 1912, Page 3

HOW PUBLIC MONEY GOES.

ON "VVESTLAND RAILWAYS

LINE THAT COST £42.160 A MILE

(SPECIAL' TO "THE FItESS.") WELLINGTON. November 3

Hidden away in the maze of depart* mental returns is the amazing fact that upon.ono short lino of" railway in Westland there has been an expenditure equal to £42,165 per mile. This is the Jino,. a. length', of three' miles 40, chains, tho construction of which has cost £1<17,577. ■ Originally authorised in 1902, it was intended that tho line should extend to tho, right bank of the Blackball Creek near Blackball township, a distance /of about 2 1 miles, but -subsequently it was decided to .carry it on a, iurther >70 chaius for the purpose of serving ' both the Blackball and the Paparoa coal mines. The principal expenditure anticipated at first was the construction of a combined railway and road bridge over the Grey river at Ngahere, tor which a contract was let in September, 1902, tho price being £23,331. When that contract was let it was estimated that the Hue could bo constructed to the vicinity of tho mine adit by an expenditure of a further £30,000, in addition to tho cost of the completed work (£20,631), and that of the main bridges. The extension subsequently decided upon was not contemplated in that estimate- ,; But when it was announced in the Public Works statement of 1907, tho expenditure to March 31st of that year had already reached £49,456. During tho next two years tho construction of the lino absorbed a further sum of £54,3%3 and finally the lino was completed and handed over to the Railway Department on July 16th, 1909, the aggregate cost to March 31st, 191U, having been £131.170.' Since then further sums have been expended upon it, until its cost has reached the enormous sum of £147.577j epread over nearly ten years. It is little wonder that the present Minister of Public "Works proposes to pursiio' n policy of economy when such stories as this are found in the official records.