RAILWAY BUILDING POLICY

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1929, Page 13

RAILWAY BUILDING POLICY

UNITED SCHEMES CRITICISED

EDUCATION MINISTER'S PLANS. AGRICULTURAL BIAS REQUIRED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The debate on the Address-in-Reply was resumed in the.lTousc of Representatives to-day by Mr. D. Jones, who said he had been unable to follow the Hon. E. A. Ransom’s explanation of what hajj been done in relation to the automatic allocation of grants. It constituted a very bad variation of the old system and he doubted if the Minister himself understood the present position. Mr. Jones said he sympathised with the Minister because of the public works he had undertaken in connection with the development of the pumice lands of Rotorua, asserting that Mr. Ransom had expressed his intention to carry on this work until the Prime Minister had taken a stand in a diametrically opposite direction. As a consequence Mr. Ransom found himself with men on his hands when other works had been completed and he was unable to use them as he had hoped. Mr. Jones said there was a feeling of concern over the Government’s scheme to take land for settlers. He claimed it had been stated as the Government’s intention to oiler to buy land for cash and in the event of refusal to take the land and give in return, not cash, but Government bonds bearing interest at 4| per cent.'

. Referring to the Palmerston North deviation work, Mr. Jones said the scheme had been described as a Palmerston North question. It was not; it was a question of the nerve centre of the whole of the North Island, and the cessation of the work would result in the con- , tinuance of the delay of goods trucks affecting the whole island. There had been no statement placed in the hands of members of the House giving the reasons why the work had been stopped, despite the fact that the commission that had inve. tigated the subject in the first place had unanimously reported in favour of the scheme. He contended that when the Government stopped the work on the Taupo line it had destroyed the whole effect of the Bill which the Minister of Lands intended to introduce to absorb the unemployed by the development of Crown lands. “SIR JOSEPH’S OPPORTUNITY.” Mr. Jones said Sir Joseph Ward had had an opportunity before 1911 to complete the South Island main trunk railway and the cost of material and wages then would have been very much less. If it -were necessary to-day to build the line why had Sir Joseph not taken the opportunity to do so years ago as the need must also have 'existed then ? However, the Reform Party had never raised the question of the South Island extension alone; what it wanted was an investigation of the whole of the railways programme. He contended there was not the remotest chance of constructing the South Island railway without adding £1,000,000 to taxation. If the United Party embarked on a huge programme of railway construction it was doing so against the voice of the people. The United Party did not have a majority; it was dependent on the labour Party for its remaining in office. Mr. Jones contended that the Prime Minister knew when he made the promise of cheap money certain loans were maturing. If the Government had not lifted the money it had from the local market the rate of interest on mortgages would have been 5J per cent.; it was now 6 per cent. Money lenders had informed him the Prime Minister was the best friend they had ever had. Mr. Jones said the statement of the Prime Minister’ that he could not borrow on the London market for two years was a very important question, and he was glad the late Minister of Finance had asked for a reference to the subject in the Budget. Reform as a party and the country had a right to know how the late Government had made this commitment.

The Hon. H. Atmore said farmers throughout the Dominion had carried unanimous votes in favour of his proposal to give education an agricultural bias, which had been criticised by members of the Reform Party. Regarding unemployment, he said there were a thousand more men on public works today than there were when the United Party took office. That, he considered, effectively answered the statements that men were being taken from public works and placed on relief works. He claimed that the wages of men on public works contracts to-day were better than they were during th e Reform administration. PROPER PLACE OF FARMER. Returning to, the subject of education, Mr. Atmore said the impression must be removed from the mind of young people that they must go to towns to find employment requiring intellect. There never had been a time when the farming industry required so much experience and, in fact, scientific training. The tendency had been io rank professional men first, then commercial men,

technical workers and artisans and, last of all, farmers. In a country dependent on its primary products the order should be reversed so that farmers came first, then technical workers, commercial men and professional men, and until the idea was inculcated in the minds of the pupils that there was an outlet on the land for the best brains in NewZealand, so long would the numbers of unemployed increase. Mr. Atmore produced a lithograph of what was known as the “balloon loop,” and stated that officials had been opposed to the construction of this line. The cost of miles of this Kirikopuni railway was £155,000. He also referred to railways in the Whangarei district undertaken at a cost of over £41,000 per mile, and asked against whom should there be a charge of extravagance in railway construction, when it was remembered the Public Works estimate of the cost of the South Island extension was £27,000 per mile, and the average cost of the South Island lines £16,000 per mile. Mr. Atmore said no Minister in the Government was dominated by departmental heads. Each Minister would evolve his own policy, and when it was approved by his colleagues he would see that it was carried out. He was there to represent the people and should interpret their wishes. He was opposed to a system of having three controlling boards in one district. He was not against boards, but ho did condemn wasteful expenditure occasional by lack

of unification of control. The presen system of measuring the ability o pupils was . not a fair one. The prac tical boy who, perhaps, was not as sue cessful academically as others, shouli be given his due share of credit. Grea tive ability had not been recognised: a it should have been. Education intis consist of contact with things as wel as with abstract affairs. iThe debate was adjourned and th< House rose at 9.30 p.m.