PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE ON a ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9257, 20 July 1893, Page 3

PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE ON a ROADS.

TO Tllh KDITOR. 1 »Siß,The report of the Lands and Survey J 1 Department will repay the earnest perusal of l) every Northern settler, and ought to cause J-' our Auckland members to tear their hair in *» anger and vexation. Roughly the items read as follows, viz Main roads expenditure: Voted, £16,000; expended, £12,641. North Island: Voted, £7100; expended, £3730. South Island: Voted, £8900; exponded, £890.1. Miscellaneous roads and a bridges: — Auckland: Voted, £4190; ex- t pended, £1055. Roads to open up lands fi before sale :— Auckland : Voted, £10,070; i expended, £5081 lis yd. Havvke's Kay : t Voted, £8500: expended, £4101 10s 10(1. i: Taranaki : Voted. £11,000; expended, v £4580 19s ud. Wellington: Voted, .1* IS,850; ' expended, £16,908 Os lid. Nelson: Voted, c £28:50 ; expended, £285 10s fld. Canterbury ; Voted, £07.'!; expended, £017 5s lOd. Giago : Voted, £14,800 ; expended, £07%1d. Southland : Voted, £11,107 : expended. £797553 Id. Roads to give access to Marton-Te Awai intu Railway : voted, £45,800; expended, £29. e W. In Auckland district: voted, £7,537 for 10.$ miles dray road : Wellington : voted, £*0,900 ' for 32 miles dray road. Amount voted roads under control of land and survey in the whole of Mew Zealand : voted, £2,156; expended, nil. 1 would specially call the attention of the northern members of the House of Representatives to the fact that out of a sum of £8,071 voted for roads in the Auckland district, mostly north of Auckland —listen to this Messrs. Houston, R. Thompson, and Jackson Palmer —nothing was spent, llawke's Ray lost £1350 of unexpended votes, ' Taranaki, £1200 votes on the Estimates, of 5 which not a penny was spent. Wellington, 1 £1750 voted for different roads, but not ex- ' pended, out of £10,750 voted altogether. < How is this? ■ Wellington lias 31 miles 8 chains of dray roads made during the twelve months, or 7h miles more than all the rest of the North Island put together; and 16 miles more dray road to give access to the North Island Trunk Railway than in the Auckland district, at an expenditure of £20,126, as against £8800 spent in the Auckland district. Wellington had 03 miles of dray road at a cost of £38,000 ; Auckland, 24 [' miles of dray road, at a cost of £13,500. Who is to blame ? 1 certainly do not blame the Government; it is not their duty to look after the expenditure of the moneys voted, livery member of the House should take a note of the amount of moneys voted for his district, and demand from the Land and Survey Department at the end of every month how much of the vote for his district has been spent, and if he sees he is going to be " left," worry the Minister of Lands before the vote lapses. This looks like parochial politics, and every member looks upon himself as a heaven-born statesman, who cannot be bothered with these petty details; but, if this part of the colony is to prosper, we must see that every M 11. R. looks after his own particular district.— am, etc. I*. J-'- CiIEAL.