PUBLIC WORKS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 248, 17 September 1936, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS

AMBITIOUS PROGRAMME. OUTLINED BY MINISTER. THE ANNUAL STATEMENT. (By Telegraph.—Sj>ecia.l to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 16. The annual Public Works Statement was presented in the House of Representatives to-day by the Minister in charge of the department (Hon. R. Semple). After outlining the steps taken to provide improved wages and conditions for the men employed by the department, the Minister proceeded to outline the Government's proposals to give employment to as large a number of men as possible. “When the Government assumed office at the beginning of December, 1935, 13,696 men w r ere employed on public works, of whom 8289 were employed on relief work, while for the week ending August 15, 1936, 15, men were employed, mo6t of whom were on standard works,” the Minister said. “It is intended to increase the number employed on public works to 20,000 as soon as possible. “It will be seen from the estimates of expenditure for the Consolidated Fund already submitted to Parliament that provision has been made for the assistance hitherto provided from unemployment taxation for public works activities now being found from ordinary revenue. The principal amounts are for irrigation, £97,500; for land improvement, £71,000; for additions and improvements to open railway lines, £77,000. In addition, the Consolidated Fund is providing £39,000 towards the construction and improvement of settlement roads. £20.000 towards the cost of renewal of road bridges, £BO,OOO for restoration of roadworks, bridges, etc., damaged by floods, and £20,000 for maintenance and repair of roads. For the construction of aerodromes and emergency landing grounds £341,000 is being provided, whereas the expenditure from the Consolidated Fund for this service last year was £6196. ,

“Provision has also been made under the Consolidated Fund this year for £IOO,OOO for the purchase of modern plant, which is additional to the ■amount of £90,000 for plant for main highways. The total vote for maintenance of public works and services under the Consolidated Fund is £l,182,500, as compared with an expenditure of £145,492 from this fund last year.

“I am anxious to pursue an energetic policy of public works so as to provide national assets, and at the same time assist in relieving the distress caused by the drastic cessation of constructional works by the late Government. My colleague, the Minister of Finance, in the Budget referred to this subject of the curtailment of public works as being a material factor in the increase in unemployment throughout the Dominion. From 1919 to 1931 expenditure increased from £1,350,408 to £8,388,529. In 1932 it dropped to £4,815,542. in 1933 to £1,727,076, and during the years ending March 31, 1934, 1935 and 1936, expenditure evas £2,087,781, £2,242,535, and £2,484,561. “When it is remembered that business develops under settled conditions, it will be realised that any sudden disturbance is fraught with far-reaching consequences. The reduction in expenditure from loan money of £6,661,453 in two years was disastrous, as when public works should have been expanding an opposite policy was being followed. The present Government is attempting to remedy the position by providing for a reasonable development of the national resources, using ordinary revenue to assist where the w r orks are of such a nature as not to realise a full return of the annual cost.

PROPOSED EXPENDITURE. A study of the proposed expenditure on public works for this year, as indicated in the Public Works Estimates, shows that much the greater portion thereof is needed for means of transport and travel. Under broad headings the proposed expenditure is as follows :

(1) Construction of means of communication and transport (railways, highways, roads, harbours, and aerodromes) ... 5,605,700 (2) Land development, including settlement of unemployed workers ... ... 959,000 (3) Erection of public buildings 1,215,000 (4) Development of electric power 764,000 £8,543,700

“Railways will this year form a much larger proportion of the cost of the first item than they have for the past few years. Work has been recommenced on the Napier-Gisborne railway, the South Island Main Trunk railway, and the Westport-Inangahua railway. Additional railway construction under the control of the Public Works Department will be the Tura-kina-Okoia deviation on the Welling-ton-New Plymouth railway. “The proposed expenditure on road communications is very much larger this year than it has ever been in the past, and is more than half the total tor all public works. On main highways alone it is proposed to expend £3,050,000, but more than £2,000,000 of this is received from revenue. “The Government is anxious to embark on an extensive programme for the elimination of railway level crossings over main highways, and is prepared to place a very considerable sum of money on the Estimates for this purpose. The design of these crossings, however, involves in each case a problem of its own, and some time must elapse before the full effect of the programme is felt, but I have instructed the department to expedite the work as much as possible. In a few months’ time a very large number of these works will be under way.

BETTER RURAL ROADS. “I am particularly anxious to improve the roads to our backblock settlers in order to give them easy access to their markets and ports of export, and this year over a million pounds will be provided for this purpose, and for the opening up of further lands for development. With tho policy of land improvement and reclamation, and improved methods of transport, our roading system must be brought up to a higher standard than has existed in the nast.

“As Minister of Transport I have a particular interest in improved road conditions, and propose to do all I can to render our roads safer for modern methods of transport and travel. Railways and roads are our chief means for the transportation of the products of the country, and the necessities of the community in general, and arc still our principal means of passenger travel, but I believe the day is not far distant when travel by air will play a big part in the passenger traffic of this country. “A comparatively large vote from the Consolidated Fund is asked for this year for the construction of aerodromes and emergency landing grounds, without which safe and ade-

quate communication by air would be impossible. With an annual provision of this amount, or even less, for the next two or three years I anticipate that air travel in this country will be placed on a safe and satisfactory basis. I consider that the construction of aerodromes i 6 at present lagging behind the development of aviation m general. . “The work of erecting public budding is very much behind what it should be to keep pace with the development of social and other services of the Government. Instructions were given to the Public Works Department to considerably increase its staff to cope with this work. This has been done, and the architectural staff has been more than doubled. Anticipating that even this may not wholly meet the demand for public buildings, permission has been given to the deads of the departments for which buildings are required to allocate some work to architects in private practice if it should be necessary. MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS.

“Land development and improvement is considered most desirable by the Government. Irrigation plays a large part in the improvement of our farm lands in the South Island, and the Government is anxious to extend work of this nature provided it can secure to itself an adequate return for the expenditure involved in meeting the annual charges on money borrowed for this purpose. The provision of a sum of £1,039,000, including settlement of unemployed- workers, is asked for on the Estimates for these works. “Hydro-electric supply has received a good deal of my attention since I assumed office. One of the proposed new works to increase power supply was under investigation at Waikaremoana. 1 was nor satisfied that this was a sufficiently safe proposal, and therefore ordered the work to bo stopped until I had an opportunity of going fully into the design of the scheme. This 1 intend to do as soon as possible. Works for the increase of power supply from Arapuni were well advanced when I took control of the department. I am not sure that 1 would have agreed to this work, but as it had progressed so far I have not taken any steps to prevent its completion. I urther electric power will soon be required to cope with the demand, and

a programme of additional work will shortly bo considered. “1 am desirous of carrying out public works with the help of the most up-to-date machinery, and I have asked for a considerable sum in my estimates to purchase modern plant. All new railway works, large road works, irrigation works, aerodromes, and other works, will be well equipped with this plant.” FINANCE. The Minister sets out in summary form particulars regarding expenditure and receipts for last financial year, and also general information concerning the various classes of works financed from the Public Works Fund. The payments and receipts for the year 193536, and accumulated totals, in connection with the Public Works Fund and other associated votes and are shown. The gross expenditure amounted to £6,663,991, of which £l,347,097 was expended by other Government departments; the recoveries in reduction of expenditure amounted to £1,508,549, of which £500,958 was recovered by other departments; the net expenditure totalled £5,154,542, of which £846,139 was expended by other departments. In addition the department collected £1,028,416 from sales of electricity and from other forms of revenue.