PUBLIC WORKS ACTIVITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21743, 7 March 1934, Page 8

PUBLIC WORKS ACTIVITY

DEFENCE OF DEPARTMENT "DOING BEST FOR THE PEOPLE" [iJT TELEG3APH OWN" CORRESPONDENT j GISBORXE. Tuesday The Public "Works Department; was rigorously defended bj the Hon. J. Bitchener. Minister of Public Works, after he had heard sieveral deputations in Wairoa yesterday. When the Mayor, Mr. H. L. Harker, had expressed thanks on behalf of the Wairoa Harbour Board for what the department wai doing; at Waikokopu, Mr. Bitchener remarked that ha warmly appreciated the Mayor's remarks. The department, he said, was always oat to do its best ifor the people, ban it received more kicks than other departments except the Unemployment Board. " The Public Works Department," Mr. Bitchener declared, " does not deserve half the kicks it- gets. People say ic is a squandering department, but I say that is not a fact. The men we have in the Public Works Department are the best men obtainable, and they do their best, for the people of the Dominion." The Minister visited east coast townships to-day, journeying to. Te Araroa, where he is spending the night, returning to Gisborne to-morrow. He was kept informed during the day of reports from various centres of the earthquake in the south. Mr. Bitchener will leave G'.sborne on Thursday morning for Opotiki, and will receive deputations from focal bodies there in the eveitiing. The Minister will leave for Whakutane on Friday morning-