The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1960. Nelson Railway Debate

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29271, 1 August 1960, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1960. Nelson Railway Debate

The Government showed little respect for the processes of Parliament when it interrupted the Budget debate to bulldoze the Nelson Railway Authorisation Bill through the House. The time allotted to the examination of the nation’s finances and of the Government’s stewardship should not lightly be disturbed. The Government showed even less respect for the public at large by its almost contemptuous disregard of its obligation to inform the House and the public fully and to justify the project. The Government knew months ago of the very strong objections to its belated plans to redeem the Labour Party’s election promise of 1957; and in the House last week it was still unable to produce evidence that the project is necessary, that it justifies the expenditure of a large sum of public money, and that it has prospects of being reasonably economic. It certainly would not be too much to expect, fur a work of this size and cost, the publication of a White Paper giving all the

relevant facts and estimates, and the Government had ample time to have one prepared. It would have enabled the nation, as well as the Opposition, to judge the merits of the project —and the Government’s good faith. In the event, the Government had the effrontery (with an effective majority in the House of one) to ask Parliament to authorise a railway the length of which could not be stated with certainty, nor the number and length of tunnels. Nop, indeed, was the Government able to give satisfactory information about its reasons for haste after two years of relative inaction. The Opposition did no more than its duty in opposing the bill to the limit of its powers. It would have been in no stronger moral position than the Government had it agreed tamely (as Government members apparently expected it to) to such heavy expenditure of scarce capital resources on a project that its members believe to be unnecessary and uneconomic at this time.