The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 26, 1929. PUBLIC WORKS.

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 14

The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 26, 1929. PUBLIC WORKS.

The Minister of Public Works is new to his job. Perhaps for that reason MV Ransom’s first Departmental Statement is really more interesting and'instructive than weye those which were produced by his predecessors for years past. Mr Ransom has the reputation of being an insatiable worker. Evidently he has been devoting all the time he could spare to going round and finding out for himself what the Government has been doing to develop New Zealand, and what parts of the very extensive programme of works need pushing forward and what parts can be kept marking time For it would need Pandora’s purse to treat all the enterprises, which have been put in hand as a business man would treat them, presuming that he had ready command of capital and was bent on making that capital dividend-paying within the minimum of time. It is in keeping with the Ward Government’s fundamental remedy for the economic difficulties which New Zealand has experienced in recent years that in the forefront of his programme Mr Ransom places the provision of adequate back-blocks roads. It is courageous, for- denizens of the back-blocks are isolated, and, have limited opportunities to organise and introduce into politics the factor of voting power. A recent case in point was in connection with the Main Highways Fund. The Government proposed in effect to transfer to back-blocks roads certain subsidies earmarked by its predecessors for the provision of speedways between the big towns. The well-organ-ised motoring interests, pleading their special taxation, brought almost menacing pressure to bear and gained their point. Most fortunately, it seems, back-blocks communication is not to suffer. If it did, the Government’s key plan of bringing more land into production—including that land which by “ going back ” so depressed Mr Coates, Mr M'Leod, and their colleagues as to possibilities of keeping men on the land, let alone increasing the rural population—might have been hamstrung. Now that all the loose talk about the set on the farming industry, of which the Reform members delivered themselves during the supertax stonewall has withered, the Public Works Statement provides evidence anew that the Ward Government is steadily pursuing the policy of enlarging the scope of New Zealand’s production It may not be immediately profitable production, but the right lines are being followed to ensure that it promises to be. Road communication for virtual pioneers is one of the first requisites of this country, if it is to support even its present population without charity, disguised or undisguised.

Possibly by now the public is becoming sated of discussions on roads, and especially of the Main Highways scheme, The subject may therefore be dropped for. the present and a glance taken at the various railway enterprises to which the Government is committed, either by legacy or by certain economic considerations. The Ward Government evidently does not despair of the future of railways in New Zealand. The expenditure on construction during the current" year is to reach 1 2-3 millions sterling, as against slightly over one million last year The increase is in despite of the abandonment of certain North Island projects, notably the lino commonly known as Rotorua-Taupo. Evi- ( dently also it is intended, when Dargavillo is connected up with the North of Auckland system, to experiment no further in the making.of railways in! that region. The ground is unstable | from the engineer’s viewpoint, and water communication can be used as a substitute for arterial railways where already these latter do not exist. But the Government is convinced of the necessity of completing pther works in the North Island. First of these in importance is the East Coast line, connecting Gisborne w r ith Auckland. On the Bay of Plenty front of this route construction is being pushed on apace. So it is also on another section of the East Coast Trunk line, on the Gisborne end of the Napier-Gisbomo connection. So long a start ’has the railway given the road in that district that the need for expeditious service is considered imperative if the rail is to supersede the road, even though it will involve an expensive straight route instead of a circuitous one. The other North Island work being pushed ahead at top speed is the completion of a relatively small gap between railheads on the other side of the island. When this is done Taranaki will have direct rail communication with Auckland by a line from Stratford joining the North Island Main Trunk line near Tauraarunui. The South Island’s railway construction bill this year will be most modest. When this Government came into office there was one major work in hand, and the earthquakes stopped what little activity there was on it. Now the country lying in the unrailed gap on the Nelson-West Coast route 1 will have to be resurveyed. As to that Cinderella, the South Island Main Trunk line completion, this Government, inherited a tangle of alternative surveys and some few. forgotten earthworks. The disjointed ends of the scheme have to be picked up, and the appropriations this year provide for this necessary preliminary work only. Possibly of most interest in the realm of public works are the Government’s hydro-electric schemes. These are only now coming into bearing. Up to date the capital expenditure totals about 8$ millions sterling. Of this only a portion is reproductive so far, but Mr Ransom calculates that on the capital which can’be considered as in full use a return of 5$ per cent, is being returned. The Statement indicates to what extent makeshifts are being employed in the North Island to cope with the demand for current. This expanding demand is a guarantee that, as tho new units under way at the main power -stations come into operation, they too will become as A

revenue earning as the first units installed therein. As to the engineering position at Arapuni the Minister is by no means voluble; but, if one reads between'the lines, a strong argument can be found in favour of the Public Works Department doing major works itself rather than letting them by contract—as was indicated by the construction of the Arthur’s Pass railway tunnel. There is a vote of nearly half a million sterling for tho v Waitaki scheme, which is really the only South Island work of magnitude on the Estimates. It is quite, plain that the Public Works Minister and his engineers are convinced that the Waitaki scheme, in the interests of all concerned, ought to obviate the Dunedin City Corporation's projected heavy further capital expenditure on Waipori extensions.