PUBLIC WORK STATEMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1932, Page 9

PUBLIC WORK STATEMENT

review of the past year EXPENDITURE MUCH REDUCED. LARGE REDUCTIONS IN STAFF. ATTENTION TO LAND IRRIGATION. S) By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The fact that public works expenditure dropped from £8,388,529 in 1930-31 to £4,815,542 in 1931-32, and that for the current year provision is being made for £2,634,700, or only a little more than half last year’s expenditure, is the feature of the Public Works Statement presented by the acting-Minister of Public Works, the Hon. C. E. Macmillan, in the House of Representatives this afternoon. As predicted in last year’s Public Works Statement, says the Statement, it had been necessary, on account of the present difficult period, for the Government to provide as much work as possible, but the Minister had made it his object to look very carefully into the expenditure of all loan money for the purpose of reducing it to the lowest possible limit and of ensuring that it was spent to the best advantage. The rate of public works expenditure until the year 1930-31 had been steadily increasing, and last year the brake hau to be vigorously applied, even though so much Work had to be provided for those thrown out of employment by the depression in industry and 1 trade. It was certain that much the greater proportion of this work could not any longer be met by the expenditure of borrowed money. In consequence of this, the expenditure had dropped from £8,388,529 in the financial year 1930-31 to £4,815,542 last year, and for the current year provision would be made for £2,634,700, or a little more than half last year’s expenditure. ihese figures applied almost entirely to the expenditure of borrowed money, and did not give the total sum expended under the control of the Public Works Department; but they did indicate that borrowing of money for public works Was being reduced as rapidly as was consistent, with all existing circum-

stances. . _ r The activity of the department itself, L however, had not decreased in direct proportion to the reduction in loan ex- £ penditure. This was snown by the fact » that although the proposed loan expenditure for the present financial year was L only little more than one-half of last r year's, and under one-third of the previous year’s, the gross cash expenditure a for this year would be approximately u £4 000,000, as compared with £5,787,771 v last year and £8,098,301 for the previous Iyear. ' The decrease in total expenditure , must, of course, necessitate a decrease 1 in the staff employed by the department. < A reduction of nearly 40 per cent, had | been made in its members, which was J approaching a rate proportional to the expenditure reduction. A careful search * into the possibility of further staff re- ■- organisation was well in hand. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 1 Quite a noticeable feature has been the great reduction in railway expenditure as compared with - former years. Last year £590,543 was spent on new construction, and this year will not exceed £lOO,OOO. The Stratford Main Trunk railway was now the only railway work in hand as a charge against the Public Works Fund, and it should be completed by March 31, The Wellington-Tawa Flat railway deviation was still under construction by tire Public Works Department, but the allocation for this work would be reduced to less than half .of what it was last year, as only a sum of £llO,OOO could be provided under the vote for improvements and additions to open lines. Hydro-electric development this year would undergo overhaul and curtailment. It was anticipated that about one-third of last year’s expenditure would be incurred. The large portion of this would be required for the construction of the dam on the Waitaki River, a work which it would be most unwise not to carry on at a sufficient rate to ensure its safety from floods. There was still a fairly large sum of money expended last year on roads and bridges. Local bodies had been able to employ a considerable number of men on roadwork who would otherwise have been thrown on to the lists of unemployed. The department also carried a fairly large number of men on its road relief works, which again reduced the number of unemployed, but this year it was not possible to continue this policy, and the Government has had perforce to reduce the road vote this year to less than half of what it was last year. Similarly with respect to construction work on main highways carried out under the control of the department, heavy reductions must be made in the year’s expenditure, although all urgent works, such as the repair or renewal of badly deteriorated bridges, would be undertaken where there was danger to the public. INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY. Generally it may be said that the ex- . penditure on roads and highways had as far as possible been limited to works that would, tend to increase the country’s productivity, or to works that must be undertaken to ensure public safety. Any expenditure of loan money apart from these .principles had had to be incurred to relieve the distress of unemploymeht until such time as the revenue of the Unemployment Board could be made available for this purpose. One class of work which the department had not hesitated so much to undertake, was that of irrigation of land. Expenditure in this direction was such as would result in an ultimate increase in economic farm production, even though it might not immediately bear fruit. , The election of public buildings in times of ’ financial depression must be restricted, and activity in this respect would be no more than a third of what it was last year, and would be confined to cases of absolute necessity. The Public Works Department was undertaking the building of the greater portion of the small cottages which were bein« erected on the 10-acre plots of land” acquired for unemployed workers. To date 288 cottages had been built by the department on 10-acre plots, at a cost of approximately £49,000. The Unemployment Board was also entrusting to the department the expenditure of a small part of its funds for relief of unemployment. This moneyhad until recently been expended mostly on road construction, but a proportion ; of the funds was now being used for the ■ reclamation of land, chiefly on drain- ' age works and on land clearing. Out of ’ a total of 3421 men employed by the 1 department with monetary assistance ' from the Unemployment Board, more ’ than half were now engaged on land development. . i Considerable widening and improvement of roads was carried out in the ' early stages, but it was decided that > much more beneficial results would be t obtained if this money could be used ■to metal roads to backblock farms.