PUBLIC WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 76, 26 September 1941, Page 7

PUBLIC WORKS

ESSENTIAL PROJECTS

DEBATE ON STATEMENT

MINISTER'S REVIEW

','The work in the last year and In• the present year is restricted simply to those works that are deemed to be fully justified, and any work that can reasonably stand over until after the war has been treated accordingly," said the Minister of Public Works (Mr. Armstrong) in the House of Representatives today, when opening the discussion on the Public Works Statement. The Minister quoted figures showing the reduction that has taken place in Public Works employees, and said that the work which actually belonged to the Department itself had been cut down as low as it was possible to cut it; most of the work at the present time was chargeable to the

War Expenses Account.

Although the vote for national development work this year was £26,000 greater than last year, said Mr. Armstrong, the Public Works vote itself was £1,244,525 less than for last year. The reason for the total vote being more was that the Public Works Department was called upon to undertake work for practically every other State Department. Under the new method of accounting, the Minister in charge of each Department would be held responsible in future for his Department's vote in the Public Works expenditure, instead of the Minister of Public Works being the chopping-block for all the rest.

DISTRICT DEMANDS.

Notwithstanding the demand for a curtailment of Public Works expenditure and in the numbers employeds the agitation was just as strong as ever from individual members for some Public Works expenditure in their districts. One could prettyi well understand that. Local bodies adopted the attitude that if money was to be spent, they wanted their share. Mr. W. J. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo): As long as the projects are sound. :

Mr. Armstrong said there were still parts of New Zealand that were a long way behind so far as development work was concerned. Although remarkable progress in roading had been made under his predecessor, Mr. Semple, he had been amazed to find in North Auckland that there were backblocks settlers sti£ waiting for a road of any description.

The Minister quoted figures to show that in %ach of the last three years there had been a substantial reduction in the Public Works Estimates. A substantial reduction had also been made in loan expenditure, and the number of men employed had fallen considerably. The highest peak in the number employed was reached in 1939, when the total was 25,153. A month or so ago that total was down to 13,500, and of this number 3600 were employed in the maintenance services, including the highways and electrical departments. Another return he had received since then showed a further reduction of 600 men since March 31. They were now reaching the stage where it was becoming just a little bit serious, because it was just a question of whether they would be able to find sufficient men to carry out the essential work.

Nature of work.

Mr. Armstrong dealt with the different classes of Work on which the men are engaged for the purpose, he said, of trying to dispel the common belief that Public Works expenditure was brought about mainly by the construction of roads, bridges, and. railways. Of the 9000-odd men employed, there were 1446 on railway 2020 On hydro-electric schemes, .1298 were employed by local bodies assisted by the Highways Department, 1738 by the Highways Department, 352 were employed by local bodies on roading work, 427 on land improvement, 18 on the small farms scheme, 968 on irrigation, 1335 on public buildings, 1534 on aerodromes, 812 on special defence I work, and 894 on general work. Although the expenditure had been cut down and the number of men employed had been reduced substantially, fihe Public Works Department was still lasbusy as, if. not busier than, ever before, due to the fact that the Department was called upon to do so much work for the Army, Navy, and Air Departments and for the Minister of Supply. The Department had helped very materially to prepare the Dominion's defences.

HIGHWAYS EXPENDITURE. Sir Alfred Ransom (National, Pahiatua) declared that the expenditure on highways during the last five years had been grossly extravagant and wasteful.

Mr. D. W. Coleman (Government, Gisborne): You are putting up a straw man to knock him down. Sir Alfred- added that work carried

out on the highways during the last few years in respect of straightening and deviations had been in many cases unnecessary. Where motorists had made objections the roads had been altered and what had amounted to speedways had been constructed.

The Minister of Railways (Mr. Semple), who was the former Minister of Public Works, said that when he took over the portfolio he prepared a j five-year plan to try to assist the backcountry fanners. The estimated mileage of reading required was 6711 at an | estimated cost, of £4,471,520, and they set to work putting aside £1,000,000 a year to get the farmers out of the mud and to build bridges where fords had previously been used. When the war broke out 3401 miles of road had been I completed, together with 2135 miles of formation and 48,395 lineal feet of bridging. If the war had not come that plan would have been practically completed up to date. However, the work had been done in order of urgency and the cases of farmers in the greatest predicament had already been dealt with. He was glad the Minister was going on with the work as much as was possible in the circumstances. (Proceeding.)