PUBLIC WORKS VOTES.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14758, 30 August 1913, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS VOTES.

In tho House of llepresentativcß on Thursday afternoon there was a discussion which touched the edges of apolitical evil which some peoplo havo thought is the gravest of all. Everyone is familiar with the "roads-and-bridges" member—the man whoso only real interest in his work begins and ends with what ho can get for "thedistrict." Tho fume of the "roads-and-bridges" member is not local: ho received dishonourable mention threo or four years ago by Lord Robert Cecil when tho Development Fund Scheme was under discussion in tho House of Commons. That ho must be got out of politics, or that his power for evil must bo curtailed, is admitted on all hands. Tho trouble is that a remedy is hard to find. Mr Fraser said an illuminating thing when ho told tho House that "if members knew what they were " going to got in tho way of votes [on "tho Public Works Estimates] they " would be off home, and it would be "difficult to keep a quorum." He intends to make a new departure by inviting every country member to confer with him regarding what were considered the most urgent works in each district. Ho would not ask theso members to assist him in cutting down votes —we suspect Mr Fraser of an ironical intention here—but would ask them to indicate the order of preference in which works would be carried out. This procedure may be useful, but it goes nowhere near the root of tho trouble. The suggestion was made by the member for Avon that applications for public works should be dealt with by somo sort of expert Committee. Tho suggestion is, of course, not now, but it is new coming from a member of the now defunct Party which owed its strength tinder the lato Mr Seddon to the skill with which ho turned to the uses of "Liberalism" tho dependence of needy districts upon tho Ministry which dispensed tho doles. All Reformers are aware of tho necessity for some change which will set members free from tho necessity for "battling for grants," and the Minister has already given more than one indication that he apprehends the necessity for breaking with the present system. The reform of public works expenditure will be a largo task, and it will tako time, for it is involved with tho problem of local government reform. Any thoroughgoing reform "will, of course, be resisted by such members as those, who hrtvo so bitterly resented tho Civil tServke reform which has ended their business of obtaining billets for their constituents in return for votes.