IMPERATIVE WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1931, Page 14

IMPERATIVE WORKS

SHOULD BE PUT IN HAND

TRANSPORT AND DEVELOPWENT

BRIDGES AND EOADS

'Works that the country Trill have to carry out, whatever may be this findings of the economists regarding New Zealand's finances, were mentioned to a;" Post" reporter to-day by a gentleman'who. in his time has had a good deal to do with public works, and who has kept up his interest, notwitstanding- that many of tho activities with which'he was 'intimately concerned have fallen off considerably through tuo depression. Stressing the importance of transport in any land schemes, he held that' it would be better, from the cost of roading point of view, to clean up . lands already in occupation rather than to road new country. Apart1 t'ro;fc tho land schemes now being considered by the Government, he said that there was plenty of work to be .done; which, with the Government's developmental plans, would go a long way to absorbing the unemployed, but in his opinion it was time that the dumb despondency consequent upon the studied silence o:t politicians should be ended by definite statements,, which he could see no reasons for withholding longer, and the replacement of inaction by the tackling of jobs which would have to be done sooner or later. '*• , WORK WAITING TO BE DONE. f There has been far too much talk in the past," he.said, "but now the politicians ; have gono to the other extreme in "a voluble reticence; partly through fear of the reactions of necessary readjustments on :the finance of the country; and partly because they cannot ice at, the1 moment the paths it would bo.most advantageous for them to pureue personally. Thero is nevertheless a considerable amount of work to be done, quite, apart from the possibilities ,or otherwise of railway building. ■' "Itmof opinion that the GisborneN»pier railway, on which huge sums have been spent fruitlessly unless it is .completed : would pay the best of the railway extensions on which the Kailways Board reported unfavourably. Tho service cars could not do the trip under eight- hours, while the railway would take only six, and the quality of some of the land that would be opened up by the'line is far from poor.' But that is by the way. There is a very large bride* repairing, programme, both for road- and rail, that must be tackled. ■ shortly, if both of tho services ace to •remain safe and speedy. There are far too.many, one-way bridges for motor traffic Some of the bridges that will have to be replaced soon are long ones, ,such as the old Balclutha bridge, which would cost £50,000 itself, and there is the Kakaia railway bridge, which, though sound and good for some time yet, was not built for the heavier loads -which' the railway is now catering for. Coining closer home, the Otaki traffic bridge is really a one-way one, there is a long one-way bridge juts beyond Waipiikurau, and another not quite so long near Waipawa.: Most- of the old bridges are timber, and when the transport control is finalised, it willb.6 found that both in railway bridges and traffic bridges there is the need for renewals, and for the construction of bridges in more durable materials, and of greater width for traffic. At least £500,000 over the two islands will have to be srient before very long in this direction. DEVELOPING BOADED LANDS. • "There.is a certain amount of roading that will have to be done, but the extent of this will .bo determined by - productiveness* of tho . country it will open up. 1 have actually known a road . seriously asked for that would have cpst more than the capital value of the land it was to .open up. In my opinion much of the land not yet opened up is ■ not of, the ; quality to justify expensive roading. Some<of it would not pay for even the most primitive form of road, and! think.that the Government would be wise tQ unite its land development with existing roads as far as possible. There is no doubt that some, of the lands at present.occupied, especially by those comfortably off, are not being made to produce to their full extent, behave been'allowed to go back under weeds. These properties are mostly fully ro&dedj.and so the cost.of the roads remains unproductive according to the extent of the land not fully utilised. I do ' not know to what extent tUe various relief sdhemes will remain in force, but if seems to1 me that in a very short time'conditions will be such that ; a more efficient control of the men.will become imperative.'The Public Works Department would not suggest itself.as one for :the control of farming operations, but it could well take charge of the bringing back into productive condition portions of landsin private ownership that are. at present doing nothing, or very little, to add to the exports. _ "It hao proved an expensive business ' keeping most of thcjinemployed in the towns, and bringing food supplies in to them. With the men in tents, or where they already exist near enough, to, suitable lands to avoid excessively expensive transport, in disused Public Works camps, ,:the products of the land, such as mutton, butter, milk, and vegetables, could be supplied by the, farmers benefiting under the schemes' at a free on rail, or even cheaper, cost without loss, and with such gangs, working under the same rites of pay throughout the country, well fed, and with at any rate some money over from the purchase of clothing and tobacco, there would be much less discontent than at present. TRANSPORT QUESTIONS. •'Whatever is done it is certain that the. railways^must remain, under whatever ownership and control, simply because the roads as at present constructed, would not carry the traffic unless at a maintenance or reconstruc- ; tion.cost far greater than the losb now suffered ,by the combined maintenance of road and rail." '', Going somewhat technically into the Question of duplication in coastwise and inland transport, and pointing out the inefficiency of some existing harbours, our informant" gave it as his opinion that the control of transport in connoction with the handling of produce offered, scope for. great economies. ."■lt seems to me," ho said, "that it is; inevitable that the Public Works Department must assume a more general control of various activities than it has yet done. .It has the personnel for supervision, and its engineers are available without cost to the country for consultation. There does not seem much likelihood of big works being started by private enterprise until the Government gives a lead. A good deal of the uncertainty which has resulted in- the present standstill would be re- > moved by the Government seriously . tackling works which its engineers .know must be carried out, if not at once, with the minimum of delay._ These .works,.some of which I have indicated; would absorb some of the unemployed, gad would give the Government an indication of what it would be necessary for land schemes to absorb if unemployment was to be avoided next year. The carefil limitation of transport ' fieJKties to the needs of tho repro4(metlve works to be introduced is , .essential-to economy, howeyea, and f«

that reason I suggest that only landß at present roaded be redeveloped. It will be argued by some that this will benefit, those already on the way to prosperity, and this is true, but on the other hand the unfortunate will share in the added productiveness of tho lands, through the lightening of tho financial load, and the country as a whole will have put its back under the axle."