PUBLIC WORKS

Evening Star, Issue 22807, 16 November 1937, Page 8

PUBLIC WORKS

PROGRAMME INVOLVES £17,000,060 40 PER CENT. DULY FROM REVENUE MAIN HIGHWAYS ABSORB £4,000,000 NEARLY THREE THOUBAHD MEH ON RAILWAY WORKS ! [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, November 16. The sum of £17,000,000, of which £10,440,957 is loan money, is provided for Public Works for the current year in a statement which Mr Semple presented to the House this afternoon.

The expenditure from the Main Highways Fund will be £2,572,000, from the Electri c Supply Account £745,000, whilst £567,500 will be available from general revenue. The Minister points out that £3,884,500 will be provided from revenue, representing 40 per cent, of the total expenditure on Public Works.

The greatest item is main highways, involving an expenditure of £4,165,200, of which £1,906,000 will be from loan money.

A vote of £1,108,000 is asked for railway construction, on which 2,800 men are now engaged.

The Minister detailed the progress ■ made on the East Coast, the Main , Trunk, the South Island Main Trunk, and the Westport-Inangahua lines, but did not indicate any additional railway development this year. MILLION FOR LESSER ROADS. The sum of £966,000 will be expended on roads other than main highways, the Minister expressing the opinion that he would like to extend a policy of completing metalled roads to all the pnmary producers throughout New Zealand. ... J Regarding hydro-electric development, it has not yet been found possible to make any very drastic alteration m the existing procedure. The proposed development at Waikaremoana _ was stopped, and a detailed investigation is now being made on alternative proposals in this locality. PUBLIC BUILDINGS DELAYED. Last year it was anticipated that a greatly accelerated programme of erection of public buildings would take place, hut owing to the scarcity of skilled labour and structural steel at has not'been possible to maintain the rate of progress expected. These factors have already proved a source of considerable delay in the building programme. . The department is now in a position to call tenders, for public. buildings to the amount of £250,000, but is awaiting an investigation into the whole question of order of procedure in building. £320,000 FOR AERODROMES. Money lor aerodrome construction is now provided from the Consolidated Fund, and with a considerable amount of assistance from the Employment Relief Fund, it is hoped to make more progress on aerodromes during tn© current year. £320,000 is being provided from the revenue. IRRIGATION-AND RIVER CONTROL. Discussing irrigation, Mr Semple said: Investigation into the possibilities of this class of public work is being exhaustively pursued. I am still convinced that this is on© of the best classes of work from which the country will benefit. _ . . Among problems facing the Dominion, is that of river control and river maintenance. I have given a good d©al thought and attention to this. Major works of river control and flood protection have to be largely justified on economic grounds. Works of this class a have been carried out in the past by the State and also by local authorities, the provision of finance generally being adjusted to the needs of each case. The matter of river maintenance and the prevention of deterioration of stream channels and destruction of valuable land is a more difficult problem in that the existing legislation regards such work as largely a local responsibility. The department has had this matter under careful examination, and a comprehensive statement on the problem has been prepared. In my opinion the time has arrived when the State should, to a much greater extent, assume the direction of this class of work. The work would be done in collaboration with the local authority or with the settlers of the area affected, and finance would have to be arranged to suit each particularise. One difficulty in respect of this class of work is the large number of small local authorities in any particular area dealing with river and drainage matters. The question of merging these is on© that must receive the serious attention of the Government. The whole question of river control and river maintenance policy is now under review by Cabinet. • I can anticipate next year s Statement with the, information that the Government has just authorised the immediate putting-in-hand of river improvement and willow-removal works in the Waipa Basin of the Waikato River and in Hotco Valley, Rodney County. Both these works are major ones, and the need for them has been apparent for some time. HIGHWAYS FINANCE. In order to provide finance for the current year’s main highways activities, it is proposed to allocate approximately £1 >200,000 for maintenance purposes and £2,600,000 for improvements and reconstruction. Of this latter sum it is anticipated that £500,000 will bo absorbed in the elimination of dangerous railway level crossings, and a further sum of approximately £230,000 is being proposed for expenditure this year on the replacement of highway bridges. ELECTRIC POWER BALANCES. The Statements disclosed that the North Island electric power schemes showed a balance of £743,095 oyer operating expenses. This balance has been used in paying interest charges, £391,241, and £38,120 as the department’s share of the capital charges on . the King’s Wharf generating plant or the Auckland Electric Bower Board;

also £10,464 to provide the Ml statutory contribution to depreciation; and £39,130 has been charged against the cost of raising loans. The accumulated losses to date amount to £156,175, but reserve accounts established in connection with this system show that £949,888 has been credited to depreciation and £55,930 to sinking fund, which latter amount has been utilised in redemption loans. The South Island scheme showed a balance over operating expenses of £243,229, which has been used to pay interest, £312,640, and depreciation, £112,275, while £26,420 has been charged against the coatofraismg loans, leaving a deficiency of £108,106, which has been provided from me general > reserve previously accumulated. OTAGO IRRIGATION LIMITED. The Minister pointed out that; until 1934, irrigation work was wholly confined to Otago, but the time had arrived when most of the available water supplies of Central Otago had been utilised, and the remaining imgafile land can only be devetoped at greater cost.

“Except for the Maniototo Plain, where a flrayitational water is available, most of the future developments can only be done by pumping, which involves a large initial outlay and annual charges for power,”- said the Minister.

' During the past four years extensive work has been carried out in Canterbury and Marlborough. The result of these investigations proves that very large areas- of land can he developed at much lower cost than the remaining land in Otago. The main centre of activities in regard to irrigation development has therefore shifted 1 to Canterbury.

Th« largest irrigation schema remaining in Central Otago is the Maniototo scheme, with a gross area of 83,000 acres. Of this, the first development consists of 30,000 acres of the central portion, which can be developed and still remain an integral portion of the major schenfie. This area has bwn fully surveyed, but before work can be put in hand the question of sub-division of larger holdings must receive the consideration ,of the Government. £500,000 FOB MACHINERY. ' The statement mentioned an expenditure of £500,000 on machinery, and remarked that it appeared large, but the department had no equipment to start with, and it had nearly 1,200 works in “ I have not endeavoured,” adds Mr Semple, “ to replace men by machinery where it cannot be shown that a substantial saving will result, hut rather to ‘preserve the balance between speed and economy. There are many class.es of work which can be carried out almost as economically by manual labour, supplemented by a small amount of mechanical plant, as they can be entirely by machinery, and in order not to increase the number of unemployed at the present time, I have adhered to the former procedure, even though some sacrifice has been made of speed in completing the work.”-