RAILWAY WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 139, 9 December 1935, Page 10

RAILWAY WORKS

GOVERNMENT ACTION

EARLY INVESTIGATION

Amplifying the previous statement, that the new Government would reinvestigate the railway construction works stopped during the regime of the Coalition, the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), in an interview to the "Star-Sun," stated [that he was not in a position yet to make any definite pronouncement, but it was quite certain that the Government, in accordance with the commitments of the Prime Minister, would undertake an exhaustive examination of all works that had been stopped. It was not yet possible to predict what the result of this examination would be, and nothing could be said until all the data, both old and new, had been properly investigated.

Mr. Sullivan has displayed a keen interest in the affairs of the Departments of which he is now head (states the "Star-Sun"). He has accepted the responsible portfolios of Minister of Industries and Commerce, Minister of Railways, and Minister of Scientific and Industrial Research, and no member of the Cabinet is ahead of Mr. Sullivan in his keenness to get on with the job of national reconstruction so far as it affects his office. At the same time, he is determined not to take any step without careful planning. OTHER PORTFOLIOS. "With the Department of Industries and Commerce," Mr. Sullivan said, "I have only had a brief acquaintance, but I can already see that I have taken over a work that is going to prove intensely interesting. I have had to get into harness at once, for there are a number of problems left over by the past Minister which require immediate decision. "I have met all the. available heads of my three Departments? and I am going to be kept busy in the immediate future dealing with matters that must be settled at once. "Though I did not take any steps of any sort to obtain the Ministry of Industries and Commerce, I was pleased indeed when that portfolio was given to me. I have had a lifelong interest in the problems of industry, especially in the manufacturing industries, and I know that there is important work to be done.

"The portfolio of Scientific and Industrial Research," Mr. Sullivan said, "fits in excellently with the other. It is one that I regard as a privilege to hold. In this Department, as in the others, there are immediate problems to be dealt with, and on some of these I have to make decisions in the coming week. The Prime Minister takes the same view as myself, that there is a very great value to be derived from the activity of this Department, if the best use is made of it. My work in each of my Departments is going Ito be intensely interesting."