HYDRO SCHEME AT ROXBURGH

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27407, 21 July 1954, Page 12

HYDRO SCHEME AT ROXBURGH

HOUSE COMPLETES DEBATE MR GOOSMAN REPLIES TO CRITICISM (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 20. Winding up the debate on the Roxburgh contract, the Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman) said in the House of Representatives this afternoon that every action taken by the Government had been justified. Slow progress had caused the decision to rearrange the contract, he said, but now work would go ahead to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Opposition did not put up any speakers for the concluding two hours of the debate this afternoon. Ministers were the only one to speak. The debate opened last Thursday evening. The Minister of Defence (Mr T. L. Macdonald), resuming the debate, said that the Opposition had given hints up and down the country of a scandal connected with Roxburgh and that the debate was to be its “big moment,” but no greater example of an anti-climax had been seen in the House.

When the Roxburgh scheme came into operation it would more than double the South Island’s powergenerating capacity. The debate had demonstrated, said Mr Macdonald, that the Government had acted properly, that it had regard for the power position in the South Island, and that the word scandal should never have been used.

The Minister of Education (Mr R. M. Algie) said that the Opposition had limped out of the debate a sadder and wiser team. The Opposition had made serious allegations outside the House but had not repeated them, except in diluted form, during the debate. Mr Goosman had taken the steps any wise Minister would take when faced with difficulties.

The Minister of Labour (Mr W. Sullivan) said the Opposition was not concerned with Roxburgh or the problems that existed there, but it was concerned to “have a crack at the Minister and the Government.” Minister Replies The Minister of Works, in reply, said the real trouble over the Roxburgh job had not been faulty work to which attention had been drawn but the speed at which the work had been carried on. No-one would deny there had been a certain amount of faulty work, but the scheme was structurally sound.

Mr Goosman said he could imagine the criticism .he would have to face from the Opposition had the British firm’s lowest tender not been accepted. The Minister said that, contrary to a statement by one Opposition member, there was nothing on the files to suggest that Roxburgh would be in operation before 1956 or 1957.

It was unfortunate for New Zealand and for the contractors that just before the Roxburgh contract was accepted the firm had accepted two other major contracts. This had caused the firm to spread its forces too widely, said Mr Goosman.