PUBLIC WORKS AND INDUSTRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 13 December 1938, Page 7

PUBLIC WORKS AND INDUSTRY

BETTER BALANCE NEEDED j RELEASE OF MEN FOR FARM WORK ( United Press Anuria Mon. WELLINGTON, This Day. ! The need for a belter balance be- j tween public works and industry was I referred to by the Prime Minister, the ; Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, when asked in an interview last evening if the Gov- ; ernment’s scheme of industrial ex- i pansion was expected to result in a : simultaneous tapering-off of public j works activities. He said that steps al- j ready taken to release men on public! works for work on farms constituted a ; definite move in this direction. “We have to get a better balance! between public works and secondary I industry,” said Mr Savage. “To the' extent that we can take men from j public works and put them into in- i dustry that will be done. Secondary I industries will have to be built in any 1 case. If we can’t get men from pub- j lie works we will have to get them 1 elsewhere. The secondary industries 1 of the Dominion must be developed to 1 obtain that better balance.

“I am not one who thinks that money has been wasted on public works. It is ' apparent that values have been created every minute by expenditure on public works. Wages received by public works men are spent in buying the necessaries of life, and there are thousands of things not produced in New Zealand that have to be imported from abroad. That is the story in a nutshell. Our job is to get a better balance. We have to have more done in the way of secondary production, or an extension of primary production, or both. By the expansion of exports wc achieve in respect to the conservation of overseas credit the same result as is achieved by an expansion of secondary industry. “The Minister of Public Works has already indicated that where men on public works can be used for farm work they will be made available. ' That is a definite move in the direction ] 1 ha ve indicated. Ministers of the Crown and officials arc very active at Ihe present lime in getting the whole

situation more evenly balanced, and whatever problems exist will have to be removed.” « Asked if the measures designed to improve the balance between public works and industry were likely to in- ; volve the curtailment of any major i public works undertaking, Mr Savage said that all these works would be completed. "We are not stopping them,” he added.