FIRST MAJOR WORK

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 14

FIRST MAJOR WORK

EAST COAST EAILWAY

START TO BE MADE

The Government intends to make a start within the next three weeks on the completion of the unfinished Napier-Gisborne railway, and it is expected that this, the first of the Government's major works, will find direct employment for from 1000 to 1500 men. This was indicated by the Prime Minister (the Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview on Thursday evening.

He said that as soon as the Government Railways Amendment Bill, which has been passed by the House of Representatives, comes back from the Legislative Council, as he expects it to do soon after the present recess, the Minister of Railways would have full legal power to authorise.the work to proceed. "Full investigations over the line have been carried out by engineers and officials of the Railways Department and the Public Works Department, as well as the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple), and all relevant information is available," said Mr. Savage. He mentioned that there had been a constant stream of requests for employment on this job, and they had all been handed to the Public Works Department. POST OFFICE FACILITIES. Other major works that the Government had in mind included a housing scheme, which was being investigated by Mr. J. A. Lee, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, extension of mental hospital accommodation, and expansion of post office facilities. For the last-named there was an accumulated building fund of about £1,000,000. and that money would be used in building new post offices and providing additional facilities in parts of the Dominion where they were urgently needed.

"There is no shortage of work," stated Mr. Savage. "Our task is to determine which of the proposals am most urgent and which will represent full value for the amount of expenditure entailed. No time will be lost in putting into operation a programme of national development which will give useful work at decent living wages."