ENERGETIC POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 67, 16 September 1936, Page 12

ENERGETIC POLICY

HYDROELECTRIC WORKS

AN ECONOMIC RETURN,

NATIONAL ASSETS

RELIEF OF DISTRESS

Mr. Semple said it would be seen from the estimates of expenditure for the Consolidated Fund already submitted to Parliament that provision had been made for the assistance hitherto provided from unemployment taxation for public works activities now being found from ordinary revenue. The principal amounts were for irrigation, £97,500; for land improvement, £71,000; for additions and improvements to open railway lines, £77,000. In addition, the Consolidated Fund was providing £39,000 towards the construction and improvement of settlement roads,' £20,000 towards the cost of renewal of road bridges, £80,000 for restoration of road works, bridges, etc., damaged by floods, and £20,000 for maintenance and repair of roads. For the construction of aerodromes and emergency landing grounds £341,000 was being provided, whereas the expenditure from the Consolidated Fund for the service last year was £6196.

"Provision has also been made under the Consolidated Fund this year for £100,000 for the purchase of modern plant, which is additional to the amount of £90,000 for plant for main highways," said the Minister. "The total vote for maintenance of public works and services under the Consolidated Fund is £1,182,500, as compared with an expenditure of £145,492 from this fund last year. NATIONAL ASSETS. , "I am anxious to pursue an energetic policy of public works so as to provide national assets, and at the same time assist in relieving1 the distress caused by the drastic cessation of constructional works by the late Government. "From 1919 to 1931 expenditure increased from £1.350,408 to £8,388,529. In 1932 it dropped to £4,815,542, in 1933 to £ 1.727.076, and during the years ending March 31, 1934, 1935. and 1936, expenditure was £2,087,781, £2,242,535, and £2.484,561. "When it is remembered that business develops under settled conditions, it will be realised that any sudden disturbance is fraught with far-reaching: consequences. The reduction in expenditure from loan money of £6,661,453 in two years was disastrous as when public works should have been expanding an opposite policy was being followed. The present Government is attempting to remedy the position by providing for a reasonable development of the national resources, using ordinary revenue to assist where the works are of such a nature as not to realise a full return of the annual cost. "A study of the proposed expenditui'c on public works for this year, as indicated in the Public Works estimates, shows that much the greater portion thereof is needed for means of transport and travel." RAILWAY WORKS. "Railways will this year form a much larger proportion of the cost of the first item than they have for the past few years," said the Minister. "Work has been recommenced on the NapierGisborne railway, the . South Island Main Trunk railway, and the WestportInangahua railway. Additional railway construction under the control of the Public Works Department will be the Turakina-Okoia deviation on the Wellington-New Plymouth railway.

"The proposed expenditure on road communications is very much larger this year than it has ever been in the past, and is more than half the total for all public works. On main highways alone" it is proposed to expend £3,050,000, but more than £2,000,000 of this is received from revenue. # LEVEL CROSSINGS. "The Government is anxious to embark on an extensive programme for the elimination of railway level crossings over main highways, and is prepared to place a very considerable sum of money on the Estimates for this purpose; The design of these crossings, however, involves in each case a problem of its own, and some time must elapse before the full effect of the programme is felt, but I have instructed the Department to expedite the work as much as possible. In a few months' time a very large number of these works will be under way. "I am particularly anxious to improve the roads to our backblock settlers in order to give them easy access to their markets and ports of export, and this year over a million pounds will be provided for this purpose, and for the opening up of further lands for development. With the policy of land improvement and reclamation, and improved ■ methods, of transport, our roading system must be brought up to a higher standard than has existed in the past. "As Minister of Transport I have a particular interest .in improved road conditions, and propose to do all I can to render our roads safer for modern methods of transport and travel. Railways and roads are' our chief means for the transportation of the products of the country, and the necessities of the community in general, and are still our principal means of passenger travel, but I believe the day is not far distant when travel by air will play a big part in the passenger traffic of this country. AERODROME CONSTRUCTION. "A comparatively large vote from the Consolidated Fund is asked for this year for the construction of aerodromes and emergency landing grounds, without which safe and adequate communication by air would be impossible. With an annual provision ' of this5 amount, or even less, for the next two or three years, I anticipate that air travel in this country will be placed on a safe and satisfactory basis. I consider that the construction of

aerodromes is at present lagging behind the development of aviation in general.

"The work of erecting public buildings is also very much behind what it should be to keep pace with the development of social and other services of the Government.

"Instructions were given to the Public Works Department to considerably increase its staff to cope with this work. This has been done, and the architectural staff has been more than doubled. Anticipating that even this may not wholly meet the demand for public buildings, permission has been given to the heads of the Departments for which buildings are required to allocate some work to architects in private practice if it should be necessary.

"Land development and improvement is considered most desirable by the Government. Irrigation plays a large part in the improvement of our farm lands in the South Island, and the Government is anxious to extend work of this nature provided it can secure to itself an adequate return for the expenditure involved in meeting the annual charges on money borrowed for this purpose. The provision of a sum of £1,030,000, including settlement of unemployed workers, is asked for on the estimate for these works.

"Hydro-electric supply has received a good deal of my attention since I assumed office. One of the proposed new works to increase power supply was under investigation at Waikaremoana. 1 was not satisfied that this was a sufficiently safe proposal, and therefore ordered the work to be stopped until I had an opportunity of going fully into the design of the scheme. This I intend to do as soon as possible. Works for the increase of power supply from Arapuni were well advanced when I took control of the Department. I am not sure that I would have agreed to this work, but as it had progressed so far I have not.taken any steps to prevent its completion.

"Further electric power will soon be required to cope with the demand, and a programme of additional work will shortly be considered.

"As mentioned in ray opening remarks, I am desirous of carrying out public works with the help of the most up-to-date machinery, and I have asked for a considerable sum in my estimates to purchase modern plant. All new railway works, large road works, irrigation works, aerodromes, and other works will be well equipped with this plant.

RENEWED LIFE

ON PUBLIC WORKS

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY

Steps taken to revitalise the Public Works Department were outlined by the Minister of Public Works in his Statement.

"Since I took control of the Public Works Department in December last my whole energies have been concentrated in endeavouring to revitalise the activities of this important Department," said the Minister. "On assuming office I found there was not in existence a policy which ' could be relied upon to give sufficient guidance to the head of the Department and his staff and which was necessary, if, the Department was to function, in the most efficient and satisfactory way. My effort has been to frame a policy such as I believe will ultimately result in clearly defining the system upon which the Government intends to carry out its public works, and which will give to the Department that lead which it can rightly expect from the Minister in control. ■ ' '

"I was quite prepared to find, owing to several years of financial depression, that there might nof be a settled policy, and I make due allowance for such difficulties, but I was not prepared to find that the whole of the public works activities had been converted into a system of relief for unemployment.

"With this " end solely in view, methods of work had been adopted which were not only uneconomical but, to say the least of it, were highly demoralising to the men compelled to work under such conditions. It was a surprise to me that after years of work under this system the staff and workmen of the Department should have retained the will 'and energy to work which I found still existed among them. The whole position was most unsatisfactory, and gave absolutely no incentive to anyone to give of his best. New life needed to be infused into the workmen employed by the Department.

"In general, no exception could be taken to the value of the works upon which they were engaged. Some of them I did not approve of, and I did not hesitate to stop them. I shall refer to such works later. Others I would have stopped had they not progressed too far to make it inadvisable to do so; there were other works which shouM obviously have been started and had not. The Government has gone carefully into the necessity or otherwise of such works, and many of them have now been put in hand. These works are given in more detail in this statement, and I venture to say that there is not one of them that will not be found to return some economic value to the State. I wish at present, however, to dwell more upon the method of carrying out these works than upon their national benefit. "In an age when machinery is doing so much to relieve the burden of hard work, and to reduce expenditure in every direction, I could riot agree to continue to carry out work by methods that involved the unnecessary expenditure of energy and increase in cost, such as is inherent in a system of

work for the relief of unemployment only. The engineers of my Department have had to carry out a most unpleasant and distasteful duty in being asked to do work in such a way, and I am doing all I can to give them the plant and machinery that will enable them to undertake work in the way it should be carried out in this enlightened age. I have, of course, found Jt necessary to hold a balance between the use.of machinery and the employment of men who are willing to work and cannot find work, and so far I have not found it necessary to diminish the number of men employed, but rather to keep them employed in a more useful way. I could not, however, ask men to work industriously for the inadequate living wage they were receiving when the present Government took control of public works. "I decided that this state of affairs ! should not continue, and at the earliest possible moment issued a properlyplanned programme of the DepartI ment's activities, together with instruc-. ' tions that in future public works were to be undertaken as standard works, and that we were to depart from the relief system which had been followed for years past." The Minister then gave details of the agreement recently concluded between the Government and Public Works employees.