Public Works

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 128, 24 February 1938, Page 13

Public Works

Sir,—The way that the Pub' - road jobs are being carried vu. . • a thorough disgrace to those <■ . d. Recently a photograph was i.uiffi. iiwl showing on the work the tuncrete sea wall on the Pnekakariki coastal road, but if one goes there to-day very little progress can be seen since the', photograph was taken.

One has only to watch the slow progress of the Hutt Road ramp or to go. to Foxton to see the painfully slow progress of the Whirokino bridge. The same applies to the various overhead railway bridges on the Manawatu line. At Kimbolton it is annoying to watch the waste of. time occurring in the tar-sealing of this road. There ie no permanent en-. gineer to keep the job going. He has to come up from Wellington to give instructions. No start has been made with the public bridge at the Makerua Plains to do away with the present toll bridge. The men may not be all navvies and the trouble seems to lie with the Labour Government itself. There is much evidence that the Government has no money to buy materials, and the people' in file country districts state that they will not be surprised if the Labour Government floods the various road jobs with hundreds of men prior to the elections, as has been done by previous Governments. Mr. Semple made much'of the phrase of “running shoes,” and it is veTy apparent that he wants a pair of these running shoes hintself; he has lost his initiative and dash. —I am, etc., TUBAL CAIN. Wellington, February 22.