PUBLIC WORKS.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17436, 26 September 1928, Page 5

PUBLIC WORKS.

STATEMENT BROUGHT DOWN. PRESENTED IN THE HOUSE. BY HON. K. S. WILLIAMS. The Public “Works Statement was presented in the House yesterday by the Minister, the Hon. K. S. Williams, in the course of which he said: This is the third occasion it has been my privilege to present to you the annual Statement of the Public Works Department, and I think I can now claim to have fairly attained the intimate knowledge that the many ramifications of this Department necessitate in order that I, as Minister, may keep my finger on th 6 many activities which my Department carries out.

The preceding year has been one of much -activity in the various public-. works conducted by my Department, and I again wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the members of my staff for the willing and efficient service they have rendered. Railway construction and hydro-elec-tric development especially have been on a large scale, and much good work has been accomplished. During the year I continued extending my knowledge of the various works in hand by making personal investigations of the progress being made in as many cases as I was able.

The public works now being undertaken must prove to be of much benefit in the development of the country's natural resources. The extending of hydro-electric services to our primary producers, especially in the dairying districts, and the access to markets given to outlying districts by railway and road construction, all tend to increase the Dominion’s export trade. The prospects of the coming season are bright, the markets being steady for our chief exports, and it is. hoped that the service given by the Government, both in transport and power, will be availed of to the utmost by the primary producers. .. During the year the -most noteworthy progress has been evidenced by the completion and handing over to the Working Railways Department of 118 miles 29 chains of railway. It is true that for soihe years cojp* siderable portion of this. nrileAfe has been almost completed,-and the public have had a mbdified use of the same. Progress of “works further on has been so interlocked with the completed portion, involving the running of construction trains continuously over the completed portion, that it was not deemed advisable to hand over some, which might ..have been handed over, until my Department was in a position to transfer to the control of the Railways Department a considerable length, and could do so without prejudicing the progress of other works. This more particularly refers to the East Coast Main Trunk railway in the Bay of Plenty district, where until a through connection was made to Auckland it would not have been possible for the full value of the work to be Qbtained. Now that the connection between Tauranga and Waihi has been completed, and that a halt has been called in extension eastward, it has been possible to open the railway from Taneatua on the eastward, right through to Auckland. Motor v. Railway.

It is true that many places where a railway would have been the natural means of development in the past can now be developed .without the expense of laying down a railway, but where long distances have to be traversed or heavy merchandise moved the railway is still the most economical form of transport, provided, of course, that there is sufficient business to prevent the enterprise being overburdened with capital charges. Speaking of capital charges, I do not know whether honourable members have ever looked into the question of the capital charges in connection with motor transport; but, if so, they will have found that the capital invested in motor transport, including the track on which it fS operated, in New Zealand is greater than that invested in the railways, the roads being, of course, an essential part of motor transport. If rolling stock and runningexpenses alone are taken, the cost of motor transport is several times that of railways, while I do not think anyone would be found who would argue that even double the motor transport which we have in the country could do anything like the work which is being done by the railways at present. There are localities which in order that they may be developed to their fullest must be provided with cheap transport, particularly in the case of manures, and if a method of cheaply transporting fertilisers is not provided, then without doubt the districts requiring such facilities will never be developed. It is, of course, necessary to be reasonably assured that when the. development has been brought about there will then be sufficient business to justify the losses in the early stages. The Taupo Line. Bearing in mind the foregoing, the question of commencing the railway

from Rotorua into the centre of the North Island, into what is now the largest area of undeveloped country in New Zealand which is capable of development, was considered by the Government. The question of development of this country by railway connection was investigated by two Royal Commissions in the past, and the evidence which the collected was of very considerable value to the Government in coming to its decision. The exotic forests which have been established by the operations of the Government’s forestry policy in and around Waiotapu have grown to such a stage that within a very few years it will be necessary to have rail transport in order that the produce therefrom may be. economically brought to market. / When the Royal Commissions previously referred to went into this aspect of the problem they had in mind an expansion of 8000 or perhaps 10,000 acres per year on to an already existing area of 27,568 aeros, while actually there is at the present time 84,000 acres, 27,000 acres of which was planted last year, while the forestry programme of the next few years contemplates the planting of 30,000 acres per year. If railway connection was considered- at all in 1922, how much more has its necessity been emphasised by this tremendous expansion.

Apart from the necessity for a chfiap method of transporting the timber, referred to above, from the area to be served by the Rotorua-Taupo railway, there .is also the question of providing the most economical method of developing the immense area, estimated at well over a million acres of land, which lies in the valley of the Waikato River. The wonderful development of the land east of Hamilton which followed the construction of the railway from there to Rotorua inspires the hope that the providing of cheap transit facilities to bring in the much-needed manures and to take away the produce will result in a similar development south of Rotorua. The progress that has been made by the few progressive pioneers who attacked the problem even without railway transit has demonstrated what can be done with this a full measure of development could never be obtained without, fail transport. It is'not claimed; tlat the whole million and a qU-^ytel?-acres said by the Royal of 1922 to be served by |this line is capable of a high state of "development ..but a very considerable portion of that area certainly is. The almost total absence of good road metal or other material suitable for concrete .creates conditions under which the construction of a concrete road would be almost as expensive as a railway, and to attempt to carry out the timber already referred to by road would necessitate the road being constructed with a concrete foundation. Taking all these points into consideration, the Government decided to commence the construction of the railway,- making Reporoa in the meantime the objective.

East Coast Railway,

The extension of the East Coast Main Trunk railway has been discontinued at Taneatua, and I propose to await the results of the constructed portion, and to ascertain to what extent the local population patronise the railway facilities in preference to other methods of transport running in opposition thereto, before coming to a conclusion as to what further extension is warranted. Proposed Vote.

A total vote of £984,000 is proposed for railway construction, as against £1,077,000 last year.

New Deviations

The three important uaihvay deviations —namely (1) at AVestfield, near Auckland, which is being constructed to avoid the heavy grades immediately after leaving Auckland, and also to provide the increased station facilities which the growth of business absolutely demands; (2) the Palmerston North Deviation, which will take the business of the Main Trunk line outside )the fast-growing town. ' of Palmerston North, and provide the extra station facilities which could not be provided at. the present station yard location within the city limits for this, one of the most important junctions in New ,Zealand; and (3) the Tawa Flat Deviation, immediately outside Wellington, which is beingconstructed for much the same reason as the Westfield Deviation at Auckland —which form a substantial part of the works included in the scheme of the Railways Improvement Act, will all be vigorously pushed id completion. New Roads.

Roadwork, both on ordinary roads and on highways, has been pushed on in an endeavour to absorb a large number of men who were unable to find work in civil avenues of employment, and though this has resulted in works being undertaken which would not otherwise have been' undertaken this year, no work has been done which could be criticised as wasteful. Every work is a work which will be an advantage to the Dominion as years roll on, and I am of the opinion that it is better to employ men on useful work, feven though that useful work is not immediately necessary, rather -than to face the alternative of having- to pay what is commonly known as a -dole.” I hoped when making my last Statement that it would not have been necesary to make such large provision for relief workers this year as was necessary last year. Unfortunately, the reverse has been the. case, because th local labour market always lags to a certain extent behind the returns from produce sept abroad; in other words, when there is a slump in receipts works then in hand are not stopped immediately, and, convex selj, when, owing to better prices and crops, a large amount of money flows into the country new enterprises are not started immediately; but I am

quite confident that, with the many millions of additional wealth which has flowed into the country in the last few months, as the winter passes away avenues of employment will be opened up which will enable all the relief workers to be absorbd. Already there are indications in that direction. To give one specific instance; where one of my engineeis was authorised to place 120 relief workers on a fairly convenient work only 36 men could be obtained. Hardships Relieved. Alany genuine cases of hardship

employment offered by my Department and other Departments, notably the Forestry. My Department, however, must not be "looked upon .as a dumping-ground for unemployed. The large body of loyal and efficient workers who now follow public works as a permanent occupation must be protected from being flooded out at certain periods of the year when work at other callings is short. A policy of throwing open work on public works to all unemployed would be to the disadvantage of the State for the reason that it would mean a shortage of work for the regular Public Works employees, and build up in the minds of outside casual workers the idea that work in the Department would readily be available, and that there was little need to either hold down a job or make preparation for possible forced idleness.

Local Bodies Loans Act,

One of the very extensive activities that has been thrown upon my Department during the year has v been brought about by the passing of the Bocal Bodies’ Boans Act. Under that Act it is necessary for the Board to obtain expert reports on almost all the projects for which local authorities wish to borrow money, and, while all Departments of State are :.t the disposal of the Boans Board for its purposes, the greater weight* of the wor- kfalls naturally upon the Public Works Department, because the greater number of the loans of local bodies are for the construction of work falls naturally upon the Public my officers to investigate all local bodies’ proposals, not only looking into the engineering soundness of the proposals technically, but also going •into the question of probable life of the asset to be created and its necessity or otherwise for the community at large.. Naturally, the sinking fund which it is necessary to set aside must be governed by the probable life of the asset, and not, as has been the case in the past, by the ideas of the local authority as to their ability to pay, or the willingness of the money-lender to for his money.

The Bocal Bodies* Boans Act was long overdue, and will probably in the future be looked upon as one of the most important' Acts ever passed in this country. Most of us know' of instances of • loans that have been Raised and spent on works that have never produced any beneficial result for the ratepayers. The provision of a sinking fund is the great feature; hut this in some cases presses hardly on the baekblocks, where the estimated life of the loan, coupled with the sinking fund rate, prohibits the raising of a loan. It might be remarked that what may to-day appear fi( sound proposition as a metalling loan may in a few years, with the rapidly-changing methods of and increased desire to travel, assume a very different aspect and become a burden, rather than an asset. Benzine * Taxation.

From the point of view of the local authorities, one of the events of paramount 'importance was the passing of the Motor Spirits Taxation Act of last session, providing, as this new source of revenue did, a fund from which the construction and maintenance of the principal roads of the Dominion could be financed without further increasing the already severe load which the local authorities were carrying in the way of local rates. In considering the question of road finance, it must not be forgotten that for many years before the motor vehicle was taxed for the upkeep of the roads local authorities and the Government had been forced to spend large and constantly increasing sums for the upkeep of the roads. To such an extent did this apply that from 1917 to 1927 more was spent annually per motor car than, was received in the whole period, and, as I stated when the Motor Spirits Taxation Bill was before the House, something had to be done to give relief to rates. Naturally, this relief cannot he expected to manifest itself immdiately. Quite a long period was necessary in which to examine into the comparative merits of various roads before thej could be declared .highways, and consequently the full benefit could not be realised this year; and, in any case, the revenue from the motor spirits taxation only began to flow into the coffers of the Treasury at the beginning of 1928. Expenditure.

The total net. expenditure under all votes and accounts appearing on the public works estimates for the financial year ended 31st. March, 1928, was £7,061,201. Of this sum, £3,200,664 was expended out of General Purposes Account, and the balance, £3,560,537, out of special accounts.