GRANTS TO OTAGO

Evening Star, Issue 16912, 9 December 1918, Page 2

GRANTS TO OTAGO

DEPUTATION TO SIR W. ERASER. s’ ■ ■ LACK OF LABOR. (From Oue Parliamentary Reporter.} WELLINGTON, December 9. The Minister of Works on Saturday evening received a deputation of Otago I members, who urged tho claims of Otago to u fair share of the Public Works expenditure. Mr Scott introduced the deputation, and Mr Sidey explained their purpose. They wanted an assurai.ee that Otago was going to got a fair share of the expenditure in future. There seemed to have been unreasonable delay in transferring from the Public Works Department to Railway Department tho section from Clyde lo Cromwell. As regards tho Law-rence-R-oxburgh line, the Minister hud said that ho would not make any further authorisation until he was prepared to go forward with the work. He made, an authorisation for the section to Miller’s Flat in .1915, but three years had elapsed, and there was still no provision for this line. Engineering difficulties had been passed. Then there was the Tixapeka Mouth line. The deputation did not want to set one line against another, but the Balclut-ha-Tuapcka Mouth line had been authorised since 1912, and nothing whatever had been done. The department seemed to have taken advantage of a little difference regarding the route to postpone the work. lie also pointed out that the expenditure in water-power was going to be restricted to the North Island. Ho hoped that Otago was not to he penalised because .Dunedin had hud tho enterprise to, start a municipal hydro-electric scheme. On this point the Minister said iiio Government wore keeping their promise as regards starting the North Island scheme after the Lake Coleridge scheme was completed. THE MINISTERIAL REPLY.

Sir William Fraser said he would refer first to the Otago Contra! lino. Tho members would remember that a big flood had occurred in the gorge two years ago, and th-’t a section of the line had been washed out. Tho line had to he patched with a i temporary culvert, and tho department ! had to p.rrantre for increased water space j and for an enlarged culvert. The bridtro near the Halfway House had been delayed | a considerable time owing to the departI ment’a inability to get stool from England. ; Die lino li a<t nn, -,-r been finished to On in i - j well, but the Railway Department would ! not take it over until it was completely 1 finished. The work had been costly and slow The people of the district had been provided with a service all the time, though possibly it was not such a convenient service as would be provided by the Railway Department. The Minister added that he could not get a sufficient number of men to push the work on. The line would have been opened two years ago but for the war. He had been hoping that it would he finished before Christmas, but he was told now that it could not be completed until February. Ho hoped to bo able to hand it over as soon as the station was completed and the line tested. Turning to the LnwrencoToxburgh line, the Minister said the first section had been from Lawrence to Beaumont. When he had tho line finished to that point he got the authority of Cabinet to include the rest of the lino in an Authorisation Bill on the distinct understanding that no money would be required until the war was over. That understanding had been made known at the time. -Mr Sidey : This is the first time wc have heard of that. Sir William Fraser: It was known at the time, and stated publicly. I have referred to it pretty well each year, and said that it was one of the lines' that had to wait until the war was over. When the Natiomd Cabinet was formed 16 distinct lines then under construction were stopped. There were nine or ten in the North Island and six or seven in the South Island. Abuse had been heaped upon him because he would not break tho understanding and start any one of these lines. He had refused, and stated that when ho started any one of them he would start them all. The Minister said it was his intention, when Parliament met next year, to do the best ho could for Otago. He intended to endeavor to get a reasonable sum put on the Estimates to carry' on tho Roxburgh line to the point to which it had been authorised. It would have been no use putting money on the Estimates this year, as little could be done during the balance of the financial year. During the last two years it had been practically impossible for him to get labor. The whofe number of men at his disposal had been something like 2,300. and tho number had fallen as low as 1,900. Of these 465 were. Jugo-Plavs, working, for the department as the alternative to Being interned, and these men were liable to bo taken away at any time. He could not expect any largo increase in the number of men available until the main body of tho Expeditionary Force cams back. Some thousands of men were on their way to New Zealand now, hut they were invalided soldiers, and his experience had been that tho Public Works Department could get practically no labor from such men. He was not sure that he could get men just now even bv offering very high wages, and he would not feel justified in doing this, since it would merely tempt man to leave tha essential productive industries. I Tic Minister mentioned also the Tunpt-k.i Mouth Railway. lie said that- grave objections bad boon discovered to the hue us originally surveyed run iss the river. An ,

agitation had been raised for a new route by the road up the Clutha. Ho put on engineers to make a trial survey srom a point above Stirling, nearer Dunedin, and the trial surveys were made there. Then a shortage of officers developed in the department owing to the war. Half ci tl'.e men had gone away, and no progress could he made. Give him labor and en-.d-ncers, and he would make a start, on the line.