The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1931. CRITICISM IN MATAURA.

Southland Times, Issue 21428, 24 June 1931, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1931. CRITICISM IN MATAURA.

It would be wrong to refer to Mr David McDougall’s discharge of headquarter’s ammunition at Mataura as a pre-session al address since it gave very little attention to the present or the future. Mr McDougall leapt into the arena to strike at an opponent, and not to inform the electors of coming events. This is shown by the tremendous, the overwhelming emphasis given to criticism of the railways. The member for Mataura is accepted by the House as a rough and ready speaker, and perhaps this explains the absence of facts which, if given to the public., would bring the figures supplied to the public through Mr McDougall closer to accuracy. In dealing with the Railway Board, for instance, Mr McDougall either forgot or was not supplied with the information that this step was urged on the Government by the Reform Party, but was ruthlessly opposed until this year. He forgot or never' knew that Mr Sterling’s acceptance of the post of chairman of the Railway Board, at £lOOO per annum, was possible because he continues to receive a great part of the retiring allowance to which Mr McDougall referred. It is a little fact of this kind which can change the whole aspect of the matter and all the facts are to be desired. Criticising the rsilway construction under the Reformers, Mr McDougall quite forget to stress the fact that he was speaking of more than three years ago, and that in many cases the expenditure undertaken was not unreproductive, because the expectation was that operating expenses wculd be reduced. The railways of which he complained were started anl built in prosperous times, but anz blunders made then cannot extuse persistence with a costly losingline in the face of adverse expert reports and financial stringency. Mr McDougall is too good a party man to ’ondenin the Wharanui-Parnassus section, and too shrewd to explain tha. when the Bill constituting the Raiway Board was before the House, the Government had to be pushed into inchding this section within the sphre of influence of the board. Thtt line, running through the Prime Minster’s electorate, was singled outfor special treatment, and it was flnaly included under a special provisbn. It was not treated as the othir lines were. At the same time the Public Works Department is trying to formulate a scheme for a new harlour at Clifford Bay as part of this so-called South Island Main Truik project, which has had no offiial railway support so far as the pub|c knows. Anybody who visited Auckland or Wellington three years agocould not escape the fact that botk cities required new railway , statbns and yards. ’ These construe- < tion were undertaken to overcome 1 costy congestion and they, with the , deviations, will effect savings to the , Department. Mr McDougall in deal- I ing yith the workshops expenditure shoiid have remembered that here , the jeriod of transition from old to i new las not been completed and that j in hs reports Mr Sterling made it ‘ deal that he had been compelled to cut town the repair work by instruc- : lions for economy. In suggesting 1 thatiifter £2,300,000 had been spent on nw workshops they did less work in 180 than they did in 1926 is a inisiie of figures, possible only where ' the acts of management are not j undestood or in political speeches. < Enlagemcnts of expenditure over j estinltes are cited by Mr McDougall | withat any reference to the explana- i

tion that in this, as in all cases under the United Government, estimates are the work of departmental experts, and that part of these enlargements can be explained by profitable additions. The ammunition contract is a typical squib. For years the Defence authorities sought a reserve of ammunition, recognizing .that if an invasion did occur no further supplies could be relied on. Taking 200 rounds per man as a modest quota for a week, excluding all machineguns, the reserve would supply 100,000 men for two weeks. Considered in that light the small arm reserve is rather meagre and it has to be remembered that the bravest men the world has known cannot fight with empty rifles and starved machine-guns. Mr McDougall's speech at Mataura no doubt was entertaining but it was extremely futile, because the little omissions were so patent and the ultra-party colour of the ancient criticism so obvious.