"PURE VANDALISM"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 11

"PURE VANDALISM"

P.W.D. ACTIVITIES

MARLBOROUGH ROADS

MR. BARKER'S IMPRESSIONS

"The curse of the people of New Zealand will be on the Labour Government and their irresponsible Minister of Public Works for many years to come," said Mr. W. L. Barker, National candidate for Wellington East, speaking at Melrose last evening, when ho described a speaking tour in^ the Marlborough Province from which he had just returned.

"Public works at present being carried on in Marlborough, as in other parts of New Zealand, are non-produc-tive, are a scandalous waste of public money,/and in many cases can be described as pure and simple vandalism," said Mr. Barker. "A cutting is being put through Lion Back hill in the Seddon district and beautiful productive farm land is being wasted just to take a slight htend out of a good road for the benefit of the leisured class. This type of vandalism is to be seen in many places—it is shocking." , Mr. Barker said that in several districts he saw beautiful plantations which had been ruthlessly cut down for no necessary or valuable purpose. Near Tuamarina, parts of two farms had- been confiscated so that another road, running parallel to a road already existing, could be put through. At Spring Creek four new bridges, each a mile long, were to be rebuilt although they had no value. Two bridges were being "built over Dry Creek, in which there was about "enough water for a eat to wash its face." At Massacre Hill—a cherished spot—a beautiful plantation had been hacked down while a good fence along the railway line from Blenheim to Seddon had been pulled down and a new one put up merely to provide work for men *vVho were unemployed because of the Government's policy of taxation. FARMS OUT OF PRODUCTION. "I saw more wheelbarrows than I ever knew were in New Zealand," said Mr. Barker. "I saw the Molesworth, Tarndale, and Rainbow estates, which formerly produced 600 bales of wool a year but which are now out of production owing, to Government taxation. I also saw the Ben More Station with a carrying capacity of 5000 sheep and 700 cattle which was recently put up for auction but which did not bring a bid. I saw women and children milking in the cowsheds while able-bodied men were on adjacent relief works at standard rates Of pay. ! "I am convinced," continued Mr. j Barker, "that, the present Government's policy of taxation and Government spending, which is placing an unbearable burden upon private industry, must cause a financial and industrial crash in New Zealand. If Labour is permitted to remain in power, Chaos is inevitable." Referringl to the quality of the land along the South Island Main Trunk line, Mr. Barker said that Mr. R. A. | Wright did riot know what he was talking about when he described it as being of poor .quality. . "Right from Blenheim to Oaro," said Mr. Barker, "I saw all along the liriej some of the finest sheep and cattle country in New Zealand. Most of the homes I saw on those farms were just havens of heaven on earth and made me feel depressed when I passed by the hundreds of little, huts in the P.W.D. camps in which so many of our young men and women are forced to exist today because of the present Government's policy of taxation, inflation, and interference in business."