PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 190, 14 May 1928, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE

Sir, —It was announced a few days ago that steps were to lie taken to proceed at once witli the erection of a new railway station at Auckland. Why at Auckland? Is it because there is said to be more discontent witli the Government in that locality than in any part of tlie Dominion? If there be money to burn, and on railway accessories in particular, when there is evidence that this branch of State enterprise is in danger of becoming a doubtful asset through the looming up of a doughty antagonist in the shape of motor coinpetition, why should Wellington, with its long deferred and many times promised railway station, be left out in the cold?- Can there be any valid answer to that? On the other hand, is the Auckland station a set-off to the Tawa Flat deviation, the construction of which —if proceeded with—will circulate some cash in and around the Capital City?

And, by the way, making mention of Tawa Flat, what is the Government really doing in the matter? Rumour has it that the Alinister of Finance is against the spending of large sums of money at present on works of any kind. Then why spend a very large amount on a station at Auckland? A railway station may be a great convenience, but it cannot by any stretch of imagination be regarded as a productive work. If money for certain public undertakings be available does it not stand to reason that it should be expended on works of utility that will bring in a return of some sort on the outlay? Now, seeing we are told that the Tawa Flat deviation will save the country £40,000 a year in haulage, would it not be in the region of commonsense to assume that, even allowing for the much greater cost involved, it would be a more businesslike proposition to proceed with a work that would, when completed, effect a saving almost, if not quite, equal to interest on the cost, as against building an edifice that will not be directly, and possibly not even indirectly, revenue producing? When in the way of making reference to those public works alluded to, let me go a step further and ask: Has the Government any real intention of proceeding with the whole Tawa Flat work? Has it called for tenders simply to verify its own departmental estimates, regardless of the expense entailed on others? Or is it that on the plea of prices greatly exceeding estimates it is intended to entrust the work to the Department, and carry it through by day labour in the expectation of propitiating the Socialist gods? Vain hope! If there be anything in this supposition, then it would become the duty of the Press on the ground of economy and in the interests of the heavily-burdened taxpayers of the country to make a strong protest. In seeking to keep a Government from blundering and, perhaps, committing political suicide, there need not, in administering correction, be any departure from that general loyal support voluntarily given to keep in power a Government that, whatever its deficiencies, is possibly the. best available meanwhile, taking all circumstances into consideration. Alay I point out to you. Sir, that your journal on its inception twenty years ago was a most potent force in rehabilitating a party that was almost forgotten by its long banishment to the cold shades of opposition, and thus freeing the country from a system of government that was fast degenerating into an oligarchy. Y'ou have indeed a right to speak out and, if necessary, with severity, even if you should do so more in sorrow than in anger. —I am, etc., SCRUTATOR. Wellington, May 7.