COMMITTEE NOT REVIVED

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1930, Page 11

COMMITTEE NOT REVIVED

CABINET CONSIDERS FACTS 1' ♦ ' ’ ; ( ’ .WORK: AVAILABLE FOR ■ THE MEN. • < fb ;; BIG REDUCTION IN EXPENDITURE. 'Following the announcement of other adjustments in. State activities necessitated by the financial position of the Dominion, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Acting Prime Minister, yesterday issued a statement dealing with railway construction worke. ?“The position was placed soon after .the close of .the session/’ Mr. Ransom says,' “before the Prime Minister, who after some delay owing to j his duties . at the Imperial Conference authorised Cabinet to make such decisions.

* , “As the facts' dictated, the Go ver nment has decided that the parliamentary committee which was set up during t last session to inquirei into railway construction should not be /revived as a 'recess committee. The Government has, .all salient facta in its posseesion to.eni able it to arrive at determinations and ■ ! has given due consideration.to;the possibilities of every section of line under construction and the policies, both local and national, that surround them. I “Actual investigations in localities ' were suggested and . pressed by. district organisations and delegations and though these might lend local colour to considerations it was doubted whether they would reVeal matter outside the knowledge of the Government. ■ ' “The finalisation of the decisions has ' been delayed by the necessity of exploring alternaitivei' measures that would Absorb bh other.'works the large body • . meii tha-t Will be affected by ;the ' proposals. The Government is now in a position to; say that sufficient work of an urgent nature .can be made avail- . able. on ,Arapuhi, on the' development■ of land,' and 1 , roads required in connection 'with such development. .

OF £150,000

“The adjustments following upon the decisions ’ are that at/the end of the financial year? it is expected there will be an/ under-expenditure of ,£151)250 in the railway construction vote. It is an- . tiripated,.. -however, that in the next financial year ’ the provision .for railway construction will J>e; reduced by £620,000. “In regard to the employment of men Who will no longer be required on construction work as the result of the decjsipfis, of the. Government, the Government haA given instructions' that ]-*s. many as possible /of the men -now employed. on the two North Auckland lines shall be offered work on the Arapuni /hydro-electrio repair works which as already / announced by thq Minister of Public Works have been commenced and will/gradually absorb a large, number of men. //■ :-./' ' ■ ■/

, .“I am dealing, in. another, statement -with the alternative measures assoeiated with land development and road works accessory thereto and their relationship ter the employment of men now on road and railway' construction; I recognise the financial, industrial and political difficulties surrounding the decisions arrived at hy the Government. .>Pj!“The Ministers have made an earnest ‘ attempt to face the position -and if their action ia open to < criticism of delay, that was due in part to a determination to-find a Balanced solution of'all factors, not the least being the factor of unemployment.”