PUBLIC WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 26, 30 July 1938, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS

LARGE PROGRAMME

POLICY DEFENDED

TRIBUTE TO WORKMEN

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

"Men and machinery on public works in New Zealand are the best equipped in the British Empire," said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), who arrived in Christchurch on a good-will tour today. He was accompanied by the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple), the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), and the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb).

"The bulk of the work is carried out on a co-operative contract system," said Mr. Savage. "The men are earning good wages and the State is getting good vali:2 for its expenditure. On every class of construction men have improved wonderfully in skill and in the output of work, and now they are an army of men of whom the nation can be proud. It is the intention of the Government to continue its policy of carrying out a comprehensive, yet welldefined programme of works.

"I cannot subscribe to the conservative doctrine that public works should be cut down in times of prosperity. The slowing down of public works invariably leads to a slump such as has been the rule in this country, and the advice to cut down and expend during depression times comes ill from the very people who, during the last economic depression, singled out public works as the first of national activities to suffer.

"There were 21,188 men employed on public works during May last," continued the Prime Minister. "The programme of improvements and additions to open .lines of railways is a large one for the current year in' an effort to catch up on the shortage of wagons, locomotives, and other1 rolling stock. The year's expenditure is estimated at £3,746,000. Last year's net vote expenditure was £1,292,772. : ' "Reconstruction and improvement of main highways, together with the elimination of railway level crossings, is proceeding at a pace greater than ever before to meet the demands of the heavily-increasing traffic. The total expenditure for the year was £4,031,728 and an expenditure of £5,037,200 is projected for "the current year. Never in the history of the Dominion have roading problems of the country been approached as comprehensively as has been done since this Government took office, and the Department's operations on country roads for the year ended March 31,1938, involved an expenditure of £1,126,757, and the amount required to be voted for the year ending March 31, 1939, is £1,410,000. "The construction of irrigation works is considered one of the most important developmental expenditures that can be undertaken, in that it creates a permanent asset and one that has a cumulative effect on the prosperity of the country. Irrigation up to 1934 was confined to Central Otago, but extensive schemes are now in hand- in the central portion of the South Island." :