HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 14 October 1914, Page 6

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

In the House, in repliy to Mr G. W. Russell, the Minister for Mines said he «puld not possibly find immediate work for the 500 meai rendered idle by, the suspension of work in the Huntly mine. - *Ili©. employment of 500 men was no ■•■'B^tHask', involving a great deal of prelitaihary expense. He would certainly do lis best to help the Huntly men, although their work might not necessarily be in the Huntly (district. y _ A, ?ill dealing with deviations, etc., in connection with railways, was introduced by Governor's Message. f yMr Russell said this was evidently the Hiley Bill,' providing for an expenditure of £3,200,000 on. station buildings/deviations,' etc., the bulk of which Trauld be spent in the Auckland district. Surely this was election year and money ~;.-*as being provided to buy up Auckland rotes. Was this the purity of the party ffhn howled against the expenditure on Dunedin station ? The scheme was altogether beyond the finances of the counV try- The Bill was one t"hat would have startled even Sir Julius Vogel, and vas :■'.:* travesty of the profession of a Government which oanje in to stop borrow- : jig.- All that wo should aim ai y-a? to *e^ «ur railways on the simpiest^lan with i; safety,;.:and v>ot to rlaiinck iipon '''wild cd, *?schemes of this " t»irt,; the product of a Government'of boomsters, blunderers and. borrowers. ? Hon; Roderick MepnaiG thftfftctarist& &? Bill as one of the most oxtraordinai^ ever submitted to Parliament. What they, had' to consider was how far .the works proposed were necessary. Many of them were luxuries, and were

tb be executed at the expense of roads ai the back country. Railways to open x, YVP growing districts were more important. 1-^t more than one-sixth of this iwmey wasnecessary. The whole scheme W«« wild and reckless, and was simply *Xe outcome of paying Mr Hiley an extraordinary salary.

:.... "Hon..A. L. Herdman said that since i the Government had come into office they had made many discoveries, and ?<one of them: was that through the mismanagement. of their predecessors our railway system had been allowed-to get out of date and obsolete. The criticism of the Opposition showed that they stffl wanted to leave the railways as y^xoy were. Against that they had ihe advice of an expert gentleman, who iW^ they had to do i *? Put the railways in a condition to fulfil : their proper functions to let the fanners get their produce to market It was not to be borrowed m one y^ar.- It was to be spread over five years. But the main point to be remembered was that the expenditure Awaa necessary to bring the railways up to date.-

Xln replyto Hon. A. L. Herdma'h, Mr -Veitch pointed out all through his reVorb Mr Hiley ga^e the greatest credit toAhis predecessor for the way he had r managed the railways. Yet the Minister ; orvJustice coolly stoodup in the Hbnse and declared that the Ronayne ttMagement had resulted in the railWay system becoming obsolete. That *as not a fact, as the work done on lines in past years was not only creditable, but was simply marvellous. The policy of the Government was evidently to feed-the cities up with borrowed money,, while they asked settlers by , legislation passed this session to build their own lines. He strongly condemned the proposal to import locomotives. His experience was that locally, built engines were.: doing better -^ork than imported ones. New offices created by Mr Hiley were made simply to propitiate the officers who were passed oyer when the new general manager was appointed. The reduction in -expenditure on maintenance was "a most serious matter, and ought to be carefully enquired into. Mr Mac Donald said Mr Hiley had never condemned the work of Mr Ronayne.. That was left to the.Minister of Justice,, and that was the greatest asset the" 'present Government 'had They' did not. hesitate to inveigh a former civil servant or against their political opponents. Discussing the building of railways, Mr Mac Donald condemned the small contract system instituted by the Minister of Publjp Works, which he said was ; wasteful and was not providing work iortHe'unemployed.

J The Premier said the Minister for Justice had cast ho slur on Mr Ronayne, his censure being directed against their predecessors in office. The whole position of our railways was set out in the first paragraph of Mr Hiley's report, in which he stated that the requirements had outgrown the system/and this Bill was necessary before the railways could be made -up-to-date. All he asked was that the other side would put the position fairly, and show that the money was not going to be expended in one year. It would possibly be spread, over even more . than five years. He had. been told that this was election year. Did hon. members suggest that because it was election year all the' public works or expenditure should stop? He could tell them he was not going to stop, notwithstanding the war, and they were going through a great crisis. The Bill would not interfere with the ordinary construction of railways and roads. Another Bill, asking for a further loan, would be introduced later on for these purposes, but in the meantime it was necessary to bring the working railways up-to-date.

Messrs Witty, Wilford, Payne, Ell, and.Hanan spoke in opposition to the Measure.

Sir Joseph Ward, continuing the debate on the Railway Bill, said the pubHe debt of the Dominion had increased since the present Government came into office .by fifteen million, while the credit balance had been reduced. The indebtedness ..this year, with the war expenditure, would be not less than eight millions. No one knew how much more. Yet in face of these added responsibilities the Government, proposed fhis wild scheme to borrow over three millions. This was a proposition such as to make all thoughtful nien pause. The Government was electioneering in the maddest manner. In spite of Mr Hiley's statement, the proposals in his report were based on the assumption that the money market would be normal. He was in favor of reasonable improvements to open lines, but not for the extravagant proposals in the Bill. WELLINGTON,Oct. 14.

Discussion on the Bill was continued by the Opposition and consisted mainly of a reiteration pf the arguments previously used.

At 3.23 the House went into Committee and the resolution reported was agreed to. The Bill was then read a first time, and the House rose at 3.27.