PUBLIC WORKS VOTE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 305, 23 November 1932, Page 9

PUBLIC WORKS VOTE

HEAVY CUT IN EXPENDITURE

BORROWING STEADILY REDUCED Although the total net expenditure under votes and accounts on tho Public Works Estimates for tho year ended March 31 last , was £4,815,542, this represented a decrease of £3,572,887 as compared with the previous year, when £B,388,529 was spent. For the current year provision will ho made for £2,034,000, or a little more than half last year’s expenditure.

This information is contained in the Public Works Statement presented to Parliament yesterday by the actingMinister, Hon. C. 111. Macmillan. “These figures apply almost entirely to the expenditure of borrowed money, and do not give the total sum expended under the control of the Public Works Department,” the statement says. “But they do indicate that borrowing of money for public works is being reduced as rapidly as is consistent with all existing circumstances. EXTENT OF ACTIVITIES. “The activity of the department itself, however, has not decreased in direct proportion to the reduction in loan expenditure. This is shown hyi the fact that although the proposed loan expenditure for the present financial year is only little more than one half of last year’s, and under onethird of tho previous year’s, the gross cash expenditure for this year will he approximately £4,000,000, ns compared with £5,787,771 last year and £8,098,301 for the previous year. “This decrease in total expenditure must, of course, necessitate a decrease in the staff employed by the department. A reduction of nearly 40 per cent, has been made in its members, which is approaching a rate proportional to the expenditure reduction. A careful search into the possibility of further staff reorganisation is well in hand. RAILWAY AND HYDRO WORKS. Quite a noticeable feature of my present statement is the great reduction in railway expenditure as compared with the statements of former years. Last year £590,543 was spent on new construction, and this year will not exceed £IOO,OOO. The Strat-ford-Main Trunk Railway is now the only railway work in hand as a charge against the Public Works Fund, anu it should be completed by March 31, 1933. The Wellington-Tawa Flat railway deviation is still under construction by the Public Works Department, hut the allocation for this work will ho reduced to less than half of what it was last year, as only a sum of' £llO- - can he provided under the vote for improvements and additions to open lines. “Hydro-electric development this year will undergo overhaul and curtailment. It is anticipated that about one-third of last year’s expenditure will he incurred. The largo portion of this will he required for the construction of the dam on the Waitaki River, a work which it would he most unwise not to carry on at a sufficient rate to ensure its safety' from floods. ROADS AND BRIDGES.

“It will he seen under the heading expenditure that there was still a fairly largo sum of money expended last year on roads and bridges. Local bodies have been able to employ a considerable number of men on road work who would otherwise have been thrown on to the lists of unemployed. The department also carried a fairly large number of men on its road relief works, which again reduced the number of unemployed, hut this year it is not possible to continue this policy, and tho Government lias had perforce toi reduce the road vote this year to loss than half of wlrat it was last year.

“Similarly with respect to construction work on main highway's carried out under tho control of the department, heavy reductions must be made in the year’s expenditure, although nil urgent works, such as the repair or renewal of badly deteriorated bridges will he undertaken where there is danger to the public. Generally it may. be said that the expenditure on roads and highway's has as far as possible been limited to works that will tend to increase the country’s productivity, or to works that must be undertaken to ensure public safety. Any expenditure of loan money apart from these principles has had to lie incurred to relieve the distress of unemployment until such time as the revenue of the Unemployment Board could be made available for this purpose,” the Minister adds. VALUE OF IRRIGATION.

“One class of work which I have not hesitated so much to undertake is that of irrigation of land. Expenditure in this direction is such as will result in an ultimate increase in economic farm production, even though it may not immediately hear fruit, and I have therefore endeavoured to keep a fair number of men employed in this way. The erection of public buildings in times of financial depression must he restricted, and activity in this respect will he no more than n third of what it was last year-, and will be confined to cases of absolute necessity. ERECTION OF FARM COTTAGES. “The Public Works Department is undertaking the building of the greater portion of the small cottages which are being erected on the 10-acre plots of land acquired for unemployed workers. To date 288 cottages have been built by the department on 10-acre plots, at a cost of approximately £49,000. Tho Unemployment Board is also entrusting to the department the expenditure of a small part of its funds for relief of unemployment. This money lias until recently been expended mostly on road construction, but a proportion of the funds is now being used for the reclamation of land, chiefly on drainage works and on land clearing. Out of a total of 3421 men employed by the department with monetary assistance from the Unemployment Board, more than half are now engaged on land development. “Considerable widening and improvement of roads was carried out in the earl}' stages, hut it was decided that much more beneficial results would be obtained if this money could be used to metal roads to backblock farms. This proposal was agreed to by the Unemployment Board, and the greater portion of tho relief workers now on roads are employed on metalling schemes.” EXPENDITURE PER HEAD, A graph shows the annual public works loan expenditure and the expenditure per head of population trom 1920 to 1932. The estimated loan expenditure for the year 1932-33 has boon added to show the continued drop from the fear 1931. This graph shows that loan expenditure, after climbing from £2,250,000 in 1920 to ovor £8,000,000 in 1931, will this year drop below the 1920 figure, and that the expenditure per head of population lias dropped from £5 7s 6d m 1931 to an estimate of £1 9s 2d for this year,