A GLARING EXAMPLE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 565, 21 July 1909, Page 4

A GLARING EXAMPLE.

■: ,',Iv^TiiAYAGANT- DEPAJITMJENTAL ; >/, 1 METHODS ' I v, -.(By Teleerapft.7ySpeclal..Oorre3poqdent.jr ;,\ Auckland, July .'20.; « .As $ glaring .example-of.Departmental mismanagement ■ and wasteof publio.-. -money,'; writes-•.the, P°rreßporiderit i of; the i"Herald;" it will bo Idiflictilt to surpass the action,. o£ the Telegraph Department in , its •wor.k: of; Vitelephpnic 'extension■[. northwards from : Kaihu.' The accuracy .of' .this charge 'is vouched . for by .the, ..North. Auckland "Times/' a representative of which has satisfied himself that a serious' Spendthrift policy is being/perpetrated.' It is common ledge that the country beyond Kaihu is typically bush, abounds in totara and other durable. timbers—in fact, the erection of a telephone lino through sucha.'locality should lie, ejected at a record minimumj cost; but it. is .a . startling fact .that the poles being used in tho work were, imported from Australia to Auckland, thence -tra.iued to Holensville, from, there shipped: to Dargavilk, again trained to Kaihu, and then wagoned into tho New Zealand bush.: , It is, moreover, a fact thp.t 'the handling charges .during the various transhipments would have paid the cost of suitable Dominion-grown poles. Tho -ridiculousness of the , work is\ furnishing roadless: settlers with an objcctlesson of Departmental extravagant' Stupidity, and indignation is rife at such waste -of public, money. Tho; officially stated cost of. Government telephonic construction is £25 ' per mile,-" but a' private lino .'erected 1 in. the; district ovor 100 miles long cost but £5 per 'mile. 1 . ■' ~' ■ ■ i: