The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1912. COSTLY AND EXTRAVAGANT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1448, 24 May 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1912. COSTLY AND EXTRAVAGANT.

It would' seem that the Mackenzie Government is determined to press forward the work of erecting the new and costly Parliamentary Buildings favoured by its predecessors in office. While professing an earnest desire to abandon extravagance and to ensure careful administration, is is also persisting with the Helcnsville northwards railway deviation. It is just as well, perhaps, in the circumstances that Ministers should be reminded of the responsibilities they are faced with. The new Parliamentary Buildings form part of a grandiose scheme originally estimated by Sir J. G. Ward to cost the unfortunate taxpayers £451,000. He has since suggested reducing this large sum by about £100,000 in all, or, say, to £350,000. This is a preposterous sum to saddle the country with iust now, even if it were rigidly adhered to. As a matter of fact, the country would be very lucky indeed to "get out" at £500,000 net, judging from past experience of "Liberal' Government "estimates." Here are three samples: The Hutt Road-Railway scheme was "estimated" to cost £100,000, "and no more," to quote a Cabinet Minister. It cost £330,000. The Auckland-Penroso duplication and tunnel was "estimated' to cost £70,000. It has cost £140,000 without the tunnel, which is still unbuilt. The Dunedin-Mosgiel duplication was "estimated" to cost £130,000. It- has cost over £400,000. The same authorities "estimated" that the cost of the Hutt Road-Railway would be nearly met by credits' from rates of reclaimed land. Not.one penny has come from that or any other source but the taxpayers' pockot. So much for the prooablc actual cost. It is not strange that this scheme was, on every occasion save one, strongly opposed in the late Parliament by a numerous minority. It is even less strange, with such a "harlequin set" of opinions as the Mackenzie Ministry represents, that two of the strongest opponents of the scheme have been the Hon. G. W. Russell and the Hon. A. M. Myers. Mr. Russell is one of the staunchest of "party" men, yet he proposed a motion directly hostile to it, and nearlydefeated his leader on it, besides voting for a similar motion. Mr. Myers, although an "Independent," and rarely voted against the Government, chosc this matter for one of his too rare efforts at independence. To sum up, the scheme was ill-consider-ed, unreasonable, extravagant, and unnecessary. It is also so thoroughly unpopular that two months ago its death was reported in the press. This, then, is the scheme that the late Prime Minister, within 48 hours of his expected Ministerial decease, suddenly resurrected from the wastepaper basket, and would foist on to the taxpayers at a cost to them of probauiy over £500,000. This is the scheme that a stop-gap Ministry is pressing on with all spend, for what purpose '! Is it part of some bargain with Slit Joseph Waisd thai they would do their utmost to lie the hands of their successors! .This is eminently a matter which should be reserved for the sanction of the new-ly-elected House, before any more money is war.tcd on it. As regfirdfi; t,be Hclensville-North--1 wards deviation, the facts appear to

he theso: There were two possible routes from Te Hara northwards, through the peninsula. One, called the western route, skirting the water ou that side of the peninsula, (he other, or ' eastern route, passing through the centre of it. The late Mit. Hai.es, then Enginerr-in-Chief, Mi:. R. W. Holmes, his successor, and Ml!. Vickerman, the District Surveyor, all reported strongly in favour of the latter route, and thereupon Mn. Hall-Jones, as Minister for Public Works, obtained an Authorisation Act for it, and it was duly proclaimed. Its advantages, according to the experts, and a subsequent" Committee of the House were that it was central, and therefore of use to all the settlers on both sides of it; that it would reduce competition against cheap water carriage to a minimum, working in with it rather than having to fight against it for bare existence; that it offered no serious engineering difficulties; that suitable stone could be procured cheaply, and. that it tapped a larger district. The objections to the western route were, that it would be useless to most of the population of the peninsula by reason.of its position on one flank; that it would have to compete against cheap water carriage for every ton of freight; that a bridge must be built over a navigable river, closing it to four-fifths of its present trade; that the cost of the bridge would be very great, since no firm bottom had been discovered at a depth of 40 feet - and that a large tract of country (Bickerstaffe), through which it must pass, partly by means of cuttings and long tunnels, was notoriously "rotten" and slipping ground. Competent authorities stated that £93,000 would be the lowest possible difference in the cost of the two routes. Mil HallJones resigned, Mn. 11. M'Kexzie reigned hi his stead, and the seat of Mr. Stall-worthy, then member for Kaipara, had to bo saved. Mr. M'Kenzie at once ignored the "authorisation'' and the proclamation, and at a later date the report of a committee of the House, and deviated the route to the western, or Kaipara, side. Two years have passed. Thirty or forty thousand pounds have been ;spcnt on this deviation, and almost as fast as sections of the cuttings and tunnels are built they fall in. A recent visitor reports (Dominion, April 9):

Most of the cuttings were partially filled at the time of my visit, tho sides having slipped. The BickerstafTe country is nothing more or less than a moving mass of silt, yet that is what they arc: trying to tunnel through. One tunnel, threequarters of a mile long, passes through a slip of about 50 acrcs in extent, and anyone can see that the whole hill has simply slithered towards the river. The face of this tufinel is some 70 or 80 feet deep, and they were filling it in with boulders brought nil the way from Kaipara Heads. Imagine the cost of this tunnel alone. Is it any wonder that the cost of railway construction per mile goes on increasing so rapidly ? We quote again: I believe if every stick was left on this job, and tho original route adopted oven now, tho country would have a lino with reasonable curves and gradients, over which trains could travel at a reasonable speed, and still bo .£200,000 in pocket. Is this a scheme that any reasonable person, spending his own and not other people's money, would persevere with? The Mackenzie Government may, of course, contcnd that it did not start these undertakings. But it must bear the responsibility for continuing them, and in the ease of the uew Parliament Buildings it has not the slightest shadow of an excuse for pressing on this extravagant work as it is doing, while other more urgent undertakings in the country districts call aloud for attention.