£17,500,000 WORKS PROGRAMME

Evening Star, Issue 22383, 6 July 1936, Page 2

£17,500,000 WORKS PROGRAMME

SPREAR OVER THREE YEARS GQVEGMMENT IKVESTIGATIEG PBOFOEALS [Pee United Pkess Association.] AUCKLAND, July 5. A conference of Public Works engineers called by the Minister (the Hon. R. Semple) in Wellington, placed before him a programme of work for the next three years. If it were put into operation in its entirety it would cost the Government' £17,500,000. These facts were revealed by the Minister in an interview following his arrival in Auckland. The Government, Dir Semple said, whs making a very careful investigation into the various proposals which had been made. After the engineers had combed their districts for necessary and useful work, they had to select between the essential and the non-essential works and to select ones that would be of real value to the country. They did not want to make any mistakes and they did not want to have to retrace their steps. Dir Semplo pointed out that already a great deal of work had been put in hand. The full plan had not yet been published. Since the scheme had been put into operation the number of men employed on Public Works jobs had been increased from 13,000 to 17,000. The maximum number that could be carried on the public works was 20,000.

“ The three-year programme may lie reduced,” he said, “ but we may find other jobs that will equalise the amount of expenditure*'proposed.” Mr Semple described as “ nothing less than an exhibition of pessimism amounting to political insanity,*’ the previous Public Works policy, ■ which, he said, had led to the denuding of the department of practically all building materials and equipment in the three railways works which were to lie carried on by his department. A great deal of money would have to be spent in repairing the damage that had been done. It would cost at least £IOO,OOO to put the Gisborne line back into the condition in which it had been left when the work was abandoned. All the equipment of the department had been sold and the lines even bad been torn up and timbering removed from the tunnels. Residents had told him lhat picks and shovels had been thrown into the Buller Gorge at the abondonment of that job.