PUBLIC. WORKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21149, 6 October 1930, Page 6

PUBLIC. WORKS.

The Public Works Statement is interesting on the subject of railway construction. Last year' £1,452,860 was expended under this heading. For the current year the allocation is £1,570,000. Of this amount, the financial year being now half through, about one half has been already expended. ■ It will not be forgotten that the United Government came into office on a policy which included a proposal for the expenditure of ten millions for the - completion within three or four years, at the outside, of certain unfinished lines of railway. What do we find to-day? The lines in question have been estimated to result, when completed, in an annual loss of three-quarters of a million, which is possibly, quite a conservative estimate. A select committee has been appointed, tp. inquire into the position. When its report may be available is uncertain/ What has been spent cannot be recovered. The Minister of Public Works is now constrained to speak of- the “ urgent necessity ” for a complete revaluation of the lines under construction in regard, inter alia, to community value for increased settlement, increased production, and those services to the public which are not easy to assess in terms of money. The Government can no longer regard the economic aspect of railway extension through rose-tinted spectacles. Had it instituted, at the time the Leader of the Opposition was urging its necessity, the investigation which is duly now being put in train, it might have spared itself and the taxpayers some present anxieties. Railway construction as the happy solution of the problem of providing employment is

a fantasy. Without anticipating, as he says, the report of the Select Com-. mittee, and yet /obviously in little doubt as to what its tenor is likely to be, the Minister of Public Works ventures to observe, “I am convinced of the importance of considering; other' avenues of employment which may be imposed as the result of curtailments found necessary in the railway construction programme.” The meaning is sufficiently apparent. The Minister has to allow,, also, that the 5000 men employed by his department on relief work, over and above the 12,000 employed on what is termed “ ordinary standard work,” are doing work which is beyond requirements at the present time. Most '■ ,of this relief work consists in road construction. Several of the large road ’works at present in hand could with- advantage, it is admitted, be held over until such time as transport requirements warrant their construction., And the probability of an unfortunate sequel in the difficulty that will confront local bodies in'respect of the maintenance of these roads is not disguised. Mr Taverner goes on to say, “My remarks on railway construction are in some ways applicable to road construction in so far as, under the extreme necessity of providing employment, roads have been made that in some cases are beyond the financial capacity of the local authorities .to maintain, and are certainly years ahead of the dethand of progressive settlement.” These comments perhaps convey to the public little that it does not -know already. But how mischievously the wind has . played with the spectacular promises, of two years ago, how faded arc the colours. More reproductive work . could be found, Mr Taverner believes, for.the relief of unemployment than the building of roads. Quite so, and a more determined effort should be made to find it. In respect of .hydro-electric undertakings, now, so important a feature of State activity in the ; Dominion, the report of; the Public Works. Department ■is as -satisfactory as could bo expected ,in view, of the uncertainty that still obtains'about the" position in regard to Arapuni. ; .Even if, in the light of Professor Homell’s report, the State, should bo able to. congratulate itself in not coming out of, that affair so badly after all; it is still, a fact that public confidence in the absolute reliability of hydro-electric power-supply schemes ; lias had .a few jars oflate. The shortcomings of the Lake Coleridge scheme have furnished a clinching argument, and tke Minister of Public Works now affirms: “Complete reliance upon generation; by hydro operation, even if .supported by expensive interconnection, is unwarranted, and' must, id fainieas to the supply authorities, be siipplemented by suitably located steam plants.” And that, of course, means an addition to the cost of the country's hydrordectric undertakings.