COST OF CLEARING

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20887, 19 August 1939, Page 9

COST OF CLEARING

PUBLIC WORKS SCHEMES MR DICKIE AND THE MINISTER (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) WELLINGTON, Friday An exchange with the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, marked the speech of Mr H. G. Dickie opposition— Patea) in the financial debate in the House of Representatives to-day. “There has been a 'considerable amount of public works going on in my district,” said Mr Dickie, “and while some of it has been very useful work, there have been some very uneconomic methods used. On one length

of road between Hawera and Patea not one of the wonderful new machines has been employed. The men broke up six miles of bitumen road with their picks.” The road, he added, was simply swarming with relief workers. At the Paraparaumu aerodrome, Mr Dickie added, the Minister was levelling off 100 acres of sandy country at a cost of £250 an acre, but at Te Eloro, which was. quiet near, there was dead flat land that could have been bought for one-fifth of the cost of the levelling that was being done. Land was also being broken in on the West Coast by the use of machinery. He believed it cost about £l7 an acre to break in the West Coast land. Mr Semple: Who told you that? Mr Dickie: A man in the district. Mr Semple: You must have been told by someone who had escaped from a mental institution. Why don’t you tell the truth? That demonstration didn’t cost the country a penny. Mr Dickie: I am talking about what it cost to bring the land in. Vulnerable Hangars Mr Semple: Well, what are you cackling about? Mr Dickie: If you are going to hurl machinery at logs and stumps the depreciation will be very considerable. Mr Semple: Oh, I will deal with you and the rest of your outfit In due course. The new Air Force hangars at Ohakea were standing up like the Sydney bridge, Mr Dickie said, but just alongside the aerodrome there were river flats where hangers could have been constructed underground. Where they were now they made a good target for any aeroplane, and were costing an enormous amount of money.