HOUSE DEBATES PUBLIC WORKS

Wanganui Chronicle, 13 October 1948, Page 6

HOUSE DEBATES PUBLIC WORKS

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Yesterday (lU).-Mr. W. S. Goosman (Opp., Piako), in the House of Representatives today, discussing the vote on the estimates for the maintenance ot public works and services, said it seemed to him peculiar that a sum of £5OO should be_ paid by the department and £1525 by the Treasury for the salary of the Commissioner of Works. He went on to say that local bodies were expressing concern that grants for road and access purposes had been cut considerably. There were cases where counties had gone on with road work and completed some projects, but would receive insufficient money from the Government to pay for them. The Minister had informed him that insufficient money had been voted to the department lor the work and he, therefore, urged that in these cases more money should be voted. Mr. A. C. Baxter (Govt., Raglan) said the point raised by the member for Piako was an important one. Counties wanted to know early in the season how much money they would receive, so that they could go ahead with their plans. He thought the sanction of Government money should be speeded up and allocations announced before the road-making season began. The Minister of Works (Mr. Semple), replying, said that the Commissioner of Works undertook a-1 kinds of jobs and the Treasury paid part of his salary because of his services to other departments of State. The Minister agreed that there wa»insufficient money on the main estimates for the requirements of counties. If representations were made, however, and cases submitted, they would be considered on their merits. Mr. Semple, in a brief reply to Mr. S. W. Smith (Opp., Hobson), said he did not agree that it was the policy of the department to put abnormally high costs on to the making of country roads so that the work would not be done; nor did the department base costs on providing a type of road which was twenty times as good as needed. The Minister, replying to Mr. D. M. Rae (Opp., Parnell), said he did not want to discuss at present details ot the 10-yeai development plan foi Auckland, “for an obvious reason,” but a sum of £200,000 would be placed on the supplementary estimates. Mr. R. M. Algie: Ah! that’s good to hear! Mr. Semple said there were certain things which had to be done to safeguard the Crown against “ground sharks.” Mr F. W. Doidge (Opp., Tauranga), referring to a sum of £157,000 on the estimates for demolition of air-raid shelters and splinter-proofing of various installations, especially oil fuel storage tanks, said an awful lot of money had been spent during the wa. on this type of work, and while no one would wish to be a scaremonger it was significant that the House ol Commons recently debated the question of demolishing the shelters. Pari of the £157,000 had been spent on removing splinter proofing from oil fuel tanks. Would it not be as well to leave the protections standing lor a while longer? The Minister of Defence (Mr Jones) interjecting, said the tanks were rusting. Mr. Semple agreed and said that on that account the proofing had to be removed. The tanks had to be scoured and painted; otherwise it would be necessary to replace them all and the steel for such undertaking* would not be available. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holland): Anglo-Iranian have got plenty. ANTIQUATED RIDING SYSTEM. Mr. Semple, answering other members wno discussed the need lor more attention to back country roads, said it might be necessary to help some ol the poorer counties, but some ol the trouble was due to the fact that the counties clung to an antiquated riding system.

Mr. J. W. Massey (Opp., Franklin): That's quite right. Mr. Semple said it was unjust to poorer parts of a county that county Lunds were not pooled to help the county as a whole. He thought tne time had arrived to abolish the riding system. However, to give the counties some relict, more roads would be taken over as State highways as soon as possible. In Central Otago, around Rotorua and elsewhere, were roads over which thousands ol tourists travelled and those roads should be maintained by the State, not by impoverished counties. Mr. K. J. Hoiycake (Opp., Pahiatua) agreed that the riding system of county finance was antiquated, but said logical extension of that idea was that the petrol tax, which was collected nationally, should be expended nationally on all the country s roads, including' those in the backblocks, and not only on those dedicated as State highways. Mr. F. Langstone (Govt., Roskill): Do you want a higher petrol tax?

Mr. Holvoake: I wouldn’t mind if ii were all spent on the roads and the country roads got their share. Mr. Holyoake added that he did no 1 blame the present Government foi the present system, which had existed for njsiny years, but a change wa; . arranted.

Mr. Semple said there was much isdom in Mr. Holyoake’s suggestion

Tnere was a limit to what counties •ould pay for the upkeep of roads. I’here was need for a national syste n .nstead of the present patchwork emi-parochial system of road maintenance. The vote \\a> passed.