LAVISH EXPENDITURE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 8 October 1913, Page 4

LAVISH EXPENDITURE.

A striking instance of the manner in which public money has been lavishly spent is afforded by the straightening of the Wellington-Hutt railway line and the necessary reconstruction simultaneously of the road which runs parallel. Some sort of an understanding was arrived at between the local bodies and the Government that the latter would share the cost of the reconstruction of the road, and it seems, or at any rate it is alleged by representatives.' of local bodies, that the estimated cost,of the whole job—railway and ' road —was £100,000, from which there would be a recovery by reason of the sale of certain land to be reclaimed. But when settling day came the local bodies discovered that the road alone had cost no less than £18,000 a mile, or a total of over £100,001), and each body concerned was called on to pay a staggering bill. An extreme case was that of the small county of Makara, on which the demand was so heavy that it would absorb 25 per cent, of its whole revenue to meet the cost of construction and another 15 per cent, for maintenance. Another local body, Petone borough, finds that its assessed share of construction and maintenance will cost £1500 a year. What the whole work—railway and road—cost does not appear, but it is understood to be quite double the estimated cost. The cost of the road alone is so great that ! the local bodies say they simply cannot and will not pay their assesments; and they are asking the Government to shift the burden on to the general taxpayer of the colony. This obviously is altogether inequitable. Nevertheless the local bodies cannot be altogether crippled,' and how to adjust the matter is one of the many problems which the Government has the privilege of setting itself to solve. The moral claim of the local bodies rests on the contention that they were absolutely misled by the estimates; and that had they known the cost would be so heavy they would not have entered into any undertaking of the kind. It may be added that it is doubtful whether, if the cost had been properly estimated, Parliament would have authorised so great an expenditure on such a work