REFORM’S PAST WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 497, 29 October 1928, Page 11

REFORM’S PAST WORK

PRIME MINISTER’S REVIEW ADDRESS AT SILVERDALE On Saturday the Prime Minis- j , ten’s tour .of the North was com- - pie ted according to schedule, and ] Wty reached Auckland at midnight. j‘ •A* Silverdale Mr.- Coates informed i laigo gathering of electors that ho 1 had been responsible for the initiation ; and drafting of the highway legisla- J tion and that the Highways Board was now empowered in special cases to bear the whole of the cost of road work. His idea was that the highway iunds would provide the main roads ana leave the county councils free to spend their rates on those roads giving access to the farms. RAILWAYS CONSTRUCTION “The United Party is talking about -ompieting the railways in three vears and not only can it not do that, but it is as well to remember that when some of them were in office they had about 36 lines under construction.” the Prime Minister said. “I do not want to blow my own trumpet, but it was left to me to bring in the policy of concentration and to get them finished. "The United Party also says it will I put settlers on the land through which i the lines to be completed will run. I j would like to know how many settlers i the party will put on the Inangahua- | Westport line and the line through the ! Buller Gorge. Why, a sheep would not | be able to hang on to that country.” HYDRO-ELECTRICITY At Brown’s Bay Mr. Coates told a j meeting he was convinced that by : 1940 New Zealand would have a sur- ' plus of £8.000,000 a year over interest j and sinking funds from its electrical undertakings, provided the standard rates now being charged were maini tained. He believed that as soon as the Arapuni scheme was completed the demand for power would be so great that additional generating units would be required, and the product from these units would be clear profit. The meeting at Kumeu in the evening was described as the largest that has been held in that district. The Prime Minister said that effect had been given to practically every one of the proposals in the 1925 platform and that the Government had come to the electors with “policy artd performance” as one of its slogans. Some attention was devoted by the Prime Minister to the Government’s land settlement proposals for the part-time farmer and the country worker, and the group purchase and settlement scheme.