FULL AGREEMENT EXPRESSED.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20898, 4 July 1933, Page 8

FULL AGREEMENT EXPRESSED.

GOVERNMENT'S PUBLIC WORKS POLICY.

MINISTER'S STATEMENT AT NELSON. | I'ci.u Oi.-i: Ur.rornk,k. j NELSON. July 3. His full agreement with the Government's decision lo push ahead with important public works in New Zealand was expressed by the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. J. Bitchener, at a civic reception, which was given him to-day by the city of Nelson. The Mayor, Mr W. Moffat, who presided, drew the Minister's attention to extensive public works programmes which were being undertaken in the United States and Canada, and commended proposals recently put before the Acting-Prime Minister, the Rl. Hon. J. G. Coates, for similar action in New Zealand. "This Dominion," he said, "is both small enough and big enough to experiment." Mr Bitchener, in reply, said that the necessity for better roads had been brought home to him, particularly in districts through which he had just been travelling. It was essential for the farming community that they should be able to transport their produce at the lowest possible cost. When he had taken over the portfolio of Public Works, he had been under the impression that the work of that department was just, about finished, and he had been amazed to see how much still remained to be done. He could give an assurance that the department was not slipping back, and that as far as funds permitted useful works would be carried out. Cheaper Building. "1 was in full accord with the Government's decision, announced last week, to go on with public works to a greater extent than for some years past," continued the Minister. "Personally, without expressing the opinion of the Government, I agree that now is the time to build, for building to-day is cheaper than in former years. "If we have public works which we can do, I think we should do them, even though times are bad. I do not believe in trying to turn New Zealand into a nation of navvies. Skilled men are far better occupied in their own trades than as navvies on roads."

Discussing his own early experiences as a farmer. Mr Bitchener said that he could not understand the antipathy of some people against going into camps. His Life in Campa. "I have gone through some of the experiences that people to-day don't want to go through," he said. "I have lived for a long period of my life in camps in the tussock country of Canterbury. We did not have very good accommodation then. The tents were not boarded, and we had to do as best we could with a few old sacks. To-day we are having a great controversy in New Zealand about camp life." The Public Works Department is trying to make the conditions of the men as comfortable as possible, and I as Minister expect them to be made as comfortable as funds will permit. I appreciate what our district engineers arc doing in this way." The reception was of special interest because of the fact that it was the first tendered to Mr Bitchener bv a city since his appointment, and also the first given by the city of Nelson to a Minister of the Coalition. The Minister spent the morning inspecting the schools and colleges of Nelson, and the afternoon in hearing deputations from surrounding local bodies.