"PERMANENT AND REPRODUCTIVE."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1224, 5 September 1911, Page 5

"PERMANENT AND REPRODUCTIVE."

THE COST OF PUBLIC WORKS. A SCANDALOUS WASTE OF PUBLIC MONEY'. (By David Jones. Organiser of the Farmers' Political Protection Federation.) ■ A considerable • amount of discussion has taken place recently over the problem of what proportion of the public debt is reproductive, various estimates are mads, the opinions are very conflicting, and the most the "Lyttelkm Times" could say in a recent issue was "assuming that so much of the debt is reproductive." The difficulty increases when we begin to consider whether the money (called reproductive) has been well and judiciously spent. If through an evil system and bad management it costs w£2oo to do .£IOO worth of work, that money can only be called reproductive in' the same sense that evil parents who produce a vicious offspring may be called reproductive. Cost of Superintendence, I have recently had an opportunity of seeing and gaining information of the way our pnblie works arc constructed, which may be of interest to the. general public who have to find the money tor the- work. ■ The first thing that strikes one is the enormous cost of superintendence and loss of time through the railway construction being scattered all over the Dominion in small driblets, when in Marlborough I travelled over the Seddon to Ward section fourteen miles of level country that took six years to build. If work was concentrated, surely this line should have been built in twelve months; the interest on this lino during* ■ the cost of construction would amount, to over six thousand pounds, a dead loss to the country. It would also appear that through so many works being undertaken there are not sufficient competent engineers in the service to undertake tha work. This is particularly noticeable at Cheviot, and, many washouts having occurred at intervals along this lino because proper provision has ■not been made for dealing with flcod X. i' I tlle en S ineer s had consulted the local authorities or even gone over the country and seen the provision that the counties with many j-ears' experience to guide them have made, this great waste of public money would have been saved. The worst illustration of this is to be «en about one mile beyond Mina, at the Frogall. Creek; this great creek at flood time w like a swift river. Ths County Council , built, a short distance below the railway, a bridge with a fifty-foot span and twenty feet from the bed of the river Dreary. The railway builders, with this bndge as a guide and the local engineer s advice, which could have been had for tho asking, proceeded to dam up the whole creek, several chains wido at this spot, with an enormous embankment, and then build a concrete culvert twelve teet by nine feet to carry tho same water that the counties' fifty-feet bndgo had to carry. The result was that m the recent flood this culvert was like a pipe-stem in a river, and the water backing up roso over this embankment, probably twenty feet high, and swept the whole away chains wide, flooding.out the farmers, sweeping away fences, sheep, and trees, etc. Claims lor compensation arc being made by farmers and council. To crown all the railway engineers are putting in another culvert to help the other, (a willow trco would bung either of them up), and the next flood wo may expect the same result. This is reproductive, of course. Co-operative Labour The system of construction is by cooperative., labour, several men taking small contracts and being paid a given price per yard. In theory this seems all right; in practice it is abominable. Under this system the State cannot avail itself of all the great labour-saving appliances that aro nis tho market to-day. Instead of steam shovels, tho men aro toiling along with tho same old longhandled shovels that Adam used when he was a boy. At Ward I saw two gangs of six men each working at cither side of a cutting; only shovels, and trucks to wheel away tho material were being used; They were working at this cutting before last Christmas, and do not expect to Iμ finished before next Christmas. I walked over three or four months' work of this new formation, and tho men appear to work in scattered groups, under no proper system of inspection, no great guiding mind to see not only that the men worked, but that their energies were scientifically directed. At Spotswood, on Cheviot Estate, I saw a month ago a gang of men at work on a long stretch of level country with wheelbarrows making tho line formation. I took little notice at the time, thinking they were probably doing some special work, but this week I found them there still. Think of it, yo taxpayers, wheelbarrows where wheel scoops and horses should be! Tho thing is almost inconceivable. Even the wheelbarrows are gol'ng about it in the most expensive fashion possible. Instead of ploughing-the soil first, it is all dug out with shovels, and the trench from which it is taken is carefully spokeshaved off with the regulation batten, which a rain or few frosts will quickly destroy. It mado one's blood boil to watch it. I said to a well-known settlor, "This is a fearful system of railway construction!" He laughed and replied, "This is not railway construction; this is relief works." I can now understand j how the co-or;crativ3 workers, when mak- ] ing the Cheviot roads, took a drain contract for drain-making and then relet it to men v;ith teams and secops, and sat down and watched them do the work. A Rotten System. The system of co-operative, labour is rotten. I do not find fault with tho men; It is tho system. Many men aro on these works who are not physically fit for shovel work; wasters dnft here on tho "right-to-work" principle, and the various gangs- are mado up of men of all these mixtures. Men cnisnci choose their m;»':cs. If they get a "pointer" and want to get rid Of him they must go through the degrading custom of balloting him out of their gang. The good man will usually prefer to put np with tho "pointer" or the man who" is'physically unfit, or elss leave, tho job rather than take the initiative in blackballing his fellow worker. The result is that tie system knocks the soul out of, and is demoralising, the better class-of worker.- Steve Boreham, tho well-known Labour advocate, in a scries of articles on "Co-operative Labour" says, after fourteen j - eaiV experience, that "should, a gang of good men by any chance get together, and make over Ss. per day, every effort is mado. either to reduce the pay or, break up the gang." Several men I spoke to said tho only way to beat the Government was to go very slow tho first month, earning low wages, mid then the price per yard would be incrnnsed for the next month when they made the pace, earned good money, and then left. Tho good man, then, has these alternatives.. He must ballot the unfit of his gans, work liard. and not receive atle(liiato pay, leave tho job, or ge tasy, knowing that the Government reckons him to receive aliout Bs. por day, whether ho earns it or not. The bulk of mankind would choose.the latter, being the lino of least resistance,; and tho result is th» system tends to destroy the character of the best olnss of worker, breeds dissatisfaction, docs not permit the use of modern machinery, and thus enormously increases the cost of construction. Further, it means that ones a co-operative labourer, always a co-operative labourer. Tied down to Bs. por day. and less with broken weather, and high-priced goods in backblocks, the man has no chanco to suve. Enormous Losses. Now, wo have to consider the effects of this system on the Dominion, financially; what wo have lost through our scattered railway construction system. It is scarcely possible to give any reliable estimate, but the cost is very great. Tho cost of construction, however, since cooperative labour has been in operation enn bo compared with tho old system of contract. The following figures wero taken out recently by Mr. Vavasour. Tho number of miles of railway opened to March 31, 1893, was 1886, at a total cost of .£117,333,120, or an averago cost of .£7Bll per mile. From 1893 to March, 1910, 831 miles have been opened at a cost of .£13,780,536, or an average cost of ,£10,582 per mile, or more than double. Some allowance has to be made for the heavier material used to-day, and in seme cases more difficult lines. The increased cost of labour should have been

more than met by present-day machinery, if that had only boon used. Say the loss by tho co-operative system has boon one-third (which I believe is understated), wo have the enormous Ices to the Dominion of X'S,Gir.,USB, a sum that would have constructed over SGO miles of railway at .I*lo,ooo per mile. This mormon*- loss is not all. We aro expected to make theso railways pay. No wonder the task is well-nigh impossible, and to do it we have for ever to pay higher fares every time we travel, every bushel of gram we rail, every sheep we truck, nil our merchandise f'in fuct, everything the 1 nil ways handle. It strikes the city man, tho worker, and the whole community. 'And this is part of the so-called reproductive debt. Universal Condemnation. I have discussed this question with men of all shades of political opinions, but I have never met a man yet (excepting politicians) who has studied this question at close quarters, who does not condemn it in unmeasured terms. »hy should public opinion tolerate this thing? If a man conducted his farm or business on this principle, bankruptcy would 6oon follow but because the pockets of all the taxpayers arc onen to the State it goes merrily on. Many districts are deprived of railways simply because the money will not go round. There is no reason, other than a political one, why this miserable system should not be swept away, and tho Public Works Department run on up-to-date lines. The only way that this can bo done is through the vote of the people, nnd every candidate at the next election who is not prepared to abolish this system, should be scored out in heavy black.