THE ARAPUNI SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18325, 15 February 1923, Page 6

THE ARAPUNI SCHEME.

An emphatic assurance has been given by the Minister for Public Works within the last few days that the Arapuni scheme is to proceed without delay. In spite of this uneasiness has not been entirely allayed. The settlers at Putaruru, able to keep a constant check upon events, are still impressed with the lack of visible progress at the site of the undertaking. The chairman of the Auckland Power Board has his anxieties also. He is in a position to gauge the extent to which ' the hopes of 150,000 people are centred upon the completion of the project. There is a simple and absolutely conclusive method of assuring all these doubters. The Minister could very well give a statement, detailing exactly how far the preliminary planning has gone. No one could reasonably have expected that the I day after the decision to proceed I with Arapuni was reached, gangs of i men should arrive on the spot and I a commencement be made with this ' great engineering project. The worst ! informed layman can comprehend i that plans must be drawn, quantities j estimated, costs reckoned in detail, j and, in short, a whole complicated j mass of data gathered. Still there I seems no reason why the people of ' New Zealand, at once the sharei holders and ultimate customers, should not be informed how far the work has proceeded, and when the next steps will be taken. Mention was made yesterday of tenders being called. Is there any reason against revealing what is to be done by contract and what by the department? jln this scheme the Public Works i Department is the agent: the people j are the principals. It is not natural j that the agent should have a monopoly of the information. No one asks for the scattering broadI cast of facts which might influence i j prices or prejudice the chances of I good bargains being made. There I must, however, be plenty that could be revealed without- such consequences. A little more frankness, a little more publicity, and there would be no room for doubts such as those expressed yesterday. The spirit shown cannot aid the work. It may harm it. That may be said without any reproach to those who expressed the doubts, for there is i such a ready and direct method by I which the Minister may remove all I grounds for anxiety.