A STRONG MINISTER
ABLE TO SAY "NO." (Special to Times). WELLINGTON, Monday. The Hon. J. G. Coates again has shown his ability to say "no" when it would be much pleasanter to say "yes" by returning an unfavourable answer to the promoters of the Putaruru railway scheme. The Minister of Public Works lias indeed been displaying a great deal more "backbone" in this respect that did the majority of his predecessors in office. A very large proportion of the railways constructed in this country, including mest of the branch lines that persistency fail to pay their way, were brought into existence by flic pressure and agitation of interested people. .But Mr Coates is not going to tolerate this kind of thing. He would have the Public Works Department, the Railway Department and the Agricultural Department report upon every proposed line before it was placed upon the building schedule, and he would undertake no expenditure on the mere representations of deputations whether tliey came from the districts immediately concerned or from- Parliament. This sounds almost too good to be true, but Mr Coates is a young man with ideals, and he proved his grit at the front.
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Bibliographic details
Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14737, 31 August 1921, Page 7
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196A STRONG MINISTER Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14737, 31 August 1921, Page 7
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