SUSPENDED

Southland Times, Issue 20661, 17 April 1929, Page 7

SUSPENDED

RAILWAY WORKS

DEVIATION AT PALMERSTON NORTH

REASONS OUTLINED BY PREMIER (Per United Press Assoc inti on.) Wellington, April 16. The important question of the deviation from the present railway station at Palmerston North has been receiving close attention and most searching investigation by the Government for the last eight weeks and has been before Cabinet during that time on several occasions.

Ten Ministers visited Palmerston North personally to examine the work, and this week arrived at the unanimous decision that the deviation work be not proceeded with.

Sir Joseph Ward informed the Press that both himself and his colleagues deeply regretted that line of action in the general interests of the country not excluding the town of Palmerston itself. An immediate review of the work was necessary, and the decision arrived at appeared to the whole of the Ministers to be the only one they could come to in the interests of the country. The question from the beginning was approached entirely free from political considerations of any kind. He would put some of the facts on record as they presented themselves to the Government. 1110 general public must be judges and form their conclusions from the facts as they were now presented to them. Latest Estimates For Work. The latest estimates of the sum required for carrving out the deviation including a new station at Palmerston North and the Whakaronga deviation, which is a continuance of the new portion to connect up the new line with the present line leading to Napier, is £725.0090. That is the lowest estimate made recently by officers of the Public Works and Railways Departments, and the cost of the new railway station with verandah, platforms and subways included in that, is estimated at £BO,OOO. The amount actually spent up to March 31 is: By the Public Works Department £156,000, and by the Railway Department (payment for land) of £47,000, while there are some land claims not yet settled which are estimated to involve approximately £13,000, a total of £216,000 which, deducted from the latest estimate of the total cost, leaves £509,000 still to be provided to completethe work. The whole of the work when completed is not expected to produce any additional revenue to the railways whatever. On the contrary, the cost of working the new station and yards will be increased to the extent of approximately £BOOO per annum apart from the loss of interest and sinking fund. Between 1921 (when traffic reached its peak) and 1928, the passenger traffic had not only not increased, but had decreased to such a large extent that it was back to about the same as it was in 1905. Goods traffic also reached the peak in 1921, and since that time has shown a decrease. Expenditure Not Justified. “As regards congestion on the present site of the railway station,” said Sir Joseph Ward, "I desire to say that the conditions as now operating do not show that this exists in any such measure as to justify the huge expenditure involved in providing a new station and yards. With the failure of traffic to increase as was anticipated, and with a suitable arrangement of the work of the trains, the situation has completely altered and to such an extent that the General Manager and his officers have reported they are quite satisfied that the expenditure of about £33,000 in the present Palmerston railway yard will afford all the facilities necessary to enable the business of Palmerston North to be carried out with reasonable convenience on the present site for some years to come. It. must not be forgotten, in assessing the position, that the loss of interest, on the amount of borrowed money that it Is proposed to put into this work, has to be considered and taken into account. The General Manager of Railways advises the Government that he can see no prospect whatever of extra revenue being earned as a result of the carrying out of the deviation now under construction, and therefore it is certain that both the interest and sinking fund upon the lowest amount that it is estimated these works will cost, must be taken into consideration to get the true position, and to ascertain the loss that the country would sustain if the works were completed.” Position Summed Up. Summed up, the position is that neither railway officers nor the Government have any motive to serve other than what appears to them to be the public interest. The fact remains that in the light of the conditions as they have developed, the whole proposal unless it were an indispensable necessity, is one which has nothing from the railway point of view, nothing from the country’s point of view, and nothing from the financial point of view (but quite the reverse), to justify any Government in going on with it. The amount already expended will, of course, have its repayment provided for by the sinking fund. No buildings whatever have been erected, and if even in 30 years from now it became necessary to again go on with the work, it could be commenced practically from the point to which it has now been brought, and comparatively no loss in the shape of deterioration would have occurred. In dealing with this important matter the Government as the employer of labour engaged at the Palmerston North deviation has given the fullest consideration to the position that the stoppage of the works will affect the workmen. At, present there arc 215 officers and men employed. Most of the formation work is in such a state that it could be stopped at once, but. there are several works, such as drains and a canal, which will have to be completed to make them safe; and to avoid future claims for possible damage by flooding. A requisite number of men will be kept on for that purpose. The majority of the men are labourers and a start will be made immediately by sending them forward to the Glsborne-Wairoa railway at the rate of 40 per week. It Is calculated by the Public Works Department that most of the men would be transferred wjthin four weeks from the stoppage of the work, 30 or 40 of them to be retained for the purpose of finishing the drain and canal mentioned.