SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23362, 30 November 1937, Page 7

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

REVISED ESTIMATE OF COST EARLIER COMPLETION EXPECTED (From Our Parliamentary Reporthir) WELLINGTON, Nov. 29. A revised estimate of the cost of constructing the South Island main trunk railway, which was given by the Minister of Public Works (Mr R. Semple) in the House of Representatives to-day, places the figure at £2,862,000, v/hich is more than £300,000 above the original estimate. It is expected, however, that the time taken for the completion of the work will be reduced by one year. _ . . Mr H. S. S. Kyle (Opposition. Riccarton) asked the Minister for details of the construction costs during the debate on the Public Works Estimates. He asked for full information, not only about the cost of the work now going on but of the expenditure for various previous construction periods in between the times of starting and stopping the work, which, he said, was first authorised in 1911. In reply, the Minister pointed oul that the original estimate was £2,535,000 and the revised figure was £2,862,000. "The estimated time for the completion of the job was four years," Mr Semple said, " but I was informed by my engineers recently that, if we cpuld get steel and with the new system of mechanised tunnelling, they could knock a year off thatr