The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1920. A PROGRESSIVE MINISTER

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 250, 16 July 1920, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1920. A PROGRESSIVE MINISTER

Although he took office as Minister op Public Works only a few months ago, tho Hon. J. G. Coates has already made it clear that he is animated by progressive ideas and is determined to improve greatly upon tho unsatisfactory methods to wliich his Department has hitherto | been restricted. A definite step j forward on these lines is promised I in his announcement to a deputai tion yesterday that he has decided I to rccommcnd that the construction of hydro-electric he entrusted to a separate brdnch of the Public Works Department. As the Minister outlined hh> proposals, another branch, controlled by mechanical and electrical engineers, will deal with such matters as power-house equipment and reticulation, and later a committee or board of business men is to be set up to control the sale of current. Reorganisation on these lines offers manifest .advantages. As matters stand hydro-electric development is one item in an overloaded schedule of development works which the Public Works Department is expected to carry out as best it can, saddled always .by the hopeless handicap of satisfying as many electorates as possible at a given time. Such methods are supremely inept m application to hydro-electric undertakings, wliich are capable of earning a. big revenue as soon as they have been completed, but they arc everywhere wasteful and unprofitable, and it may be hoped that the step now proposed in regard to hydro-electric development is only the prelude to a general reorganisation of the activities of the Public Works Department. Separate and specialised control of these important works will make it possible in any case to conccntrate definite resources upon their rapid prosecution. The Minister's aim, as ho has stated it broadly, is simply to create such an organisation as will make it poasiblo to. shapo definite working plans and carry them out in a stated period. The results, if he succccds in putting his ideas into effect, ought to bo a refreshing changc from the experience of seeing public works drift along towards completion at some uncertain date in the distant future.

No doubt methods somewhat similar to those it is now proposed to apply to bydro-olcctric development would apply just as effectively to road and railway construction. Mr. Coates lias stated on several occasions that he intends to adopt the policy of concentrating on the/most important works In hand and com-

pleting them as rapidly aa possible. He told a country deputation last month, for instance, that he considered it good policy to push on with branch lines where a tew miles of rails would make them revenue-earning, but was not in favour of the construction of branch lineß at present where they would interfere with tho progress of main lines. Obviously, if he is to_ enforce this sound policy the Minister must break completely away from tho vicious system of vote-catching expenditure which has been allowed to evolve under tho administration of successive Governments. Mb. Coates has not indicated that ho approves the longnegketed idea of setting up a nonpolitical authority to control tho detail apportionment of expenditure on railways and other works, but it seems clear that until some such authority is created there will be little prospect of concentrating on the rapid completion of works in their order of importance. Hy-dro-electric works in this respect are .a fortunate exception to the general rule, since from their nature it is evidently necessary that efforts should be concentrated on a limited number of important undertakings, 'and the erection of distributing lines can bo undertaken simultaneously at many points over extensive areas. So far as railways are concerned, a useful move would be made in the right direction if (as is now proposed in the case of hydro-electric works) a separata branch of the Public Works Department were organised to deal with their construction, and its controlling experts, in collaboration with the officials of the Railways Department, and possibly with outside experts, were inI vited to map out a national scheme of railway extension. Some such development evidently must bo effected if the Minister is to realise his ambition of substituting businesslike methods for those under which the construction of railways has been proceeding for years past at a snail's pace. Local government reform and the control of arterial roads by the Stale are other changes which manifestly must go band in hand with a really progressive Public Works policy. It is only fair to recognise tliat apart entirely from the question of working methods, the Minister of Public Works and his Department are faced at present by abnormal difficulties, notably those which arise m connection with the Bupply of labour, and finance. At a recent dato about 4000 labourers and 500 artisans were in the employ of the Public Works Department. Bcforo the war it frequently employed from 4000 to 5000 men and the' total at times ranged aa high as 6000. The scope of possible employment of course has greatly increased as compared with pre-war clays, and the present labour forco is far short of requirements. Diffi•nilties in connection with labour and however, mako it all the more imperative that the Public Works Department should be allowed to abandon out-of-date methods and carry out its work in the new way to which its Minister is showing himself strongly inclined,