TAPERING DOWN?

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4818, 2 August 1939, Page 5

TAPERING DOWN?

PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME. VOTE SAME AS LAST YEAR. NEED IN FUTURE. The public works programme for the current year apart from defence works, is approximately of the same magnitude as last year, stated the Prime Minister in his Budget address last evening. It may be said that we have reached the peak so far as public works are concerned, and our job now is to concentrate on tapering the magnitude of the programme down to a more economic level by transfer of men to the primary and secondary industries. The financial aspect of the whole programme for this year is shown clearly by the following summary:—

Railway construction and £ improvements 5,230,000 Highways and roads-. . . . 7,000,000 Public buildings 2,150,000 Land settlement, development and improvement 3,639,000 Hydro-elec. development 1,840,000 Telegraph and telephone extensions . . .... . . 600,000 Defence 2,200,000 Other works (aerodrome extensions, lighthouse works, development of tourist resorts, plant, material, etc.) . . . . 1,258,000 Total £23,917,000 Land Development Vote. This years' programme includes £3,639,000 for expenditure on landdevelopment, including settlement of new areas, improvement of existing areas, extensive assistance to the Maoris in establishing them in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, the expansion of afforestation, and the drainage of swamp lands. At 31st March last the aggregate area comprised in the numerous land settlement projects was 1,071,000 acres, of which a large proportion is under actual cultivation or pasture. More than 2400 settlers have been established within recent years, and 4800 workmen are also employed on the development of general areas not yet subdivided into holdings. As some indication of the results now attained, the statistics for 1938-39 show that 101,000 dairy cows and other cattle together with 274,000 sheep were carried, while 5,260,000 lb of b'utterfat and 5540 bales of wool were produced. The cash returns from this and other produce totalled £474,000, a record amount, and this is apart from the increased production from privately-owned lands in the irrigation areas of Otago and Canterbury.