PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1937, Page 12

PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE

MR. HARGEST’S CRITICISM [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, April 15. In reply to the recent statement of the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) that he had arranged to spend £10,000,000 on public works this year, and probably an increased sum next year, Mr. J. Hargest, M.P., addressing electors at Waiuku to-night, asked if it were at all economical. Mr. Hargest said the country would want to know what return it would receive for this expenditure, and whether such works as the South Island Main Trunk railway would profit future generations, or be a liability round their necks. “The most important aspect of the situation,” Mr. Hargest said, “is the pile of debts that the Minister is mounting up—a mortgage against future prosperity, and the saddling of an unborn generation with a debt it may be.unable to meet. Has Mr. Semple or the Government the right to mortgage the future for the purpose of adding to his personal glory? If Mr. Semple pursues his programme for five years, it means an expenditure of anything from £50,000,000 to £70,000.000 to be found by the taxpayers, or from loans. “The Minister has set out on a widely ambitious scheme, not because the country needs public works, but because they provide the means of absorbing unemployment,” continued Mr. Hargest. “In a comparatively prosperous time, the Public Works Department is the most serious competitor of private industry in the labour market. Men are receiving pay that cannot be earned on uneconomic jobs.” The amazing quantity of new machinery of American pattern to be found on public works in the North Island was also referred to by Mr. Hargest. He said the public had the right to know what sum had been spent in the last year on this machinery, whether it was all necessary, and whether tenders had been called or ‘ the order simply handed to a favoured concern. The public, he added, was paying, and was deeply conscious of the fact that when the works were completed a vast amount of machinery would be left on hand.