DRASTIC CUT

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXII, Issue 2820, 3 March 1932, Page 4

DRASTIC CUT

PUBLIC WORKS VOTE. ARAPUNI NOT AFFECTED. WELLINGTON, Wednesday. A drastic curtailment of the activi ties of the Public Works Department, owing to the small amount of loan money available, was announced by the lit. Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister in charge of the department, in a statement made in the House of Representatives last cveningsAyv As against the appropriation of £5,542,000 for the current financial year, Mr Coates said the amount available would be only £1,234,000. Development works had therefore to be reviewed and the money would have to be. apportioned in accordance with the relative importance of the works. The staff at ©the Waitaki power development is to be reduced by two-thirds, hut the Arapuni scheme is to he completed as soon as possible. Railway construction expenditure is to be cut from £700,000 to £IOO,OOO, and work on main highways is to be confined to maintenance. The expenditure on roads and bridges, apart from highways, will be curtailed from £.1,325,000 to £250,000. It is proposed that all the undertakings shall be conducted on a purely relief basis until conditions improve, thus providing many more men with work than could be done by maintaining standard wages. Otherwise only 3000 men could be employed, against the present number of 12,000.