The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1919. PUBLIC WORKS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 25, 24 October 1919, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1919. PUBLIC WORKS

Since it reviews the activities of a period which ended more than six months ago, this year's Public Works Statement deals with conditions which are now changing to some extent tor the' better. The position of affairs throughout the financial year 1918-19 certainly left a great deal of room for improvement. Owing largely to a shortage of labour, though in part also to a difficulty of obtaining materials, as severe restrictions were imposed on development work as in preceding years. The total expenditure fell to £1,330,408 as compared with £1,4H,D99 in the previous year. On this narrow basis of comparison a fairly substantial increase was shown in the expenditure on roads and bridges, but the expenditure on railway construction during 191819 showed a more than corresponding reduction. The total effect of the year's operations was to • add heavily to the arrears of development work that accumulated during the war' period. How serious the position was in this respect at the end of last March is indicated clearly -in the following table of expenditure: . Roads and Bridges. Railways. £ £ ' 1912-13 374,3« 1J48.532 1913-11 ,177,-iiU 1,101,897 1914-15 514,420 1.140,753 1915-16 424,-M 1,005.171 3910-17 220.845 1120.947 1917-18 135,012 495,771 1018-19 220,073 387,923 It will be seen that since 1916 expenditure alike on the extension of' arterial communications and on the roads and bridges that mean so much to back-blocks settlers has been tapering off to such an extent that there is an enormous amount of leeway to make up. The actual nosition is much more serious than the figures at a direct view indicate. But for the war the normal growth of the country would have called for an outlay on development worlc steadily rising from the level it attained (before the effects of tho war- were severely felt) in 1914-15. In some of the years of low expenditure, also, back-blocks roads suffered heavy damajrc from floods. Adding to this that the rapid extension of soldier settlement in itself demands a considerably increased outlay in providing means of communication, it is evident that the total arrears to bo overtaken must be estimated at something very much greater than »he_ aggregate of the amounts by which expenditure in subsequent years fell below the level registered in 1914-15.

To the country at large the conditions which existed at the end of March and have as yet been bettered only to a comparatively slight extent mean a serious handicap on progress. To back-blocks settlers these conditions mean the prolongation o( a heart-breaking struggle. With the exception of the soldiers who took their place in the firhtinp; liro, no class "or section in the Dominion has been harder hit by the war than these settlers, with their wives and children, and it is a national duty to afford them relief with all possible Sliced. The energetic prosecution of a development iirogramme calculated to' overtake rarely the arrears nf the war period 'offers this country hichly nrofitable results in a 'correspondingly rapid expansion of primary industry and production. Such a programme is demanded also as a matter of good faith and justice to the outlying settlers to whom and their families the narrowly restricted public works expenditure of the war period has meant hopo deferred and an intensification of the hardships and deprivations it is in any ens" th"ir lot to endure,

The Minister ok Pimuc fir] tlir, Government room to be n.livfi to the ncfflßH'ty of maVinet up hv enterprise for the time that has lost. For the current fmnocidl ™»i\ which now has little •"•ire Minn five months t" run, Sin <""„,.,„. T-p ,„,.,. ),„, pl . f „-:.inrl »n- - " '- :, i;,i n *wiir..- fovnnclK ;■"•' h>-i,!.- n .c :,l,v„, ><„„„ mniv, )y. sm .„| ,ip,1,.. j.),; s ],„„,] with siflvantaern if lnbour were pvn.ilrblp. The Minister observe, indeed, that in order to comnlv with all requests he would have had to place over two millions on ■ his

Estimates, but unfortunately, there is little prospect of the million provided being fully expended, though it may be hoped that the Public Works Department will improve substantially on what it accomplished in this direction last year. The fact has to be faced in reference not only to the construction of back-blocks roads and bridges hut to railway construction, the harnessing of water-power, and other items of national development that a really active and progressive public works policy will not be compassed in tnis .country until the labour force available is reinforced in the only way possible, by immigration from abroad. As But William Eraser observes in his Statement, the manhood of the Dominion, including its returned cnldieis, has very slightly increased in numbers since the war began, as tho 'lads who have passed into manhood do not much outnumber the men who wore killed or disabled on active service. Bereft of tho normal increase in its working papulation, including the gain it would have secured in years of peace by immigration, tho Dominion is badly placed to enter upon a era of national 'development and will be until it succeeds in attracting largo numbers of suitable immigrants. .The need of additional workers does not relate only to public works, but it is here most apparent. As a whole the ranee of necessary and profitable State aotivities now planned offers a ready means of guaranteeing employment for years to come to thousands of immigrants of the right stamp. Meantime works of the most urgent necessity, like, road and railway construction and improvement, and ercat and promising enterprises like water-power development, arc making slow and hampered progress for lack of labour. Over and over again Sir William Phaser has emphasised the fact that the slow progress of essential public works is due to a shortage of labour. Tho shortage ; s admitted and indisputable; and it is admitted also by all who have addressed themselves seriously to the question that the only remedy is to be found in immigration. The extraordinary thing is that the Government been content to go so far without definitely laying down the lines of an orderly immigration policy to be brought into operation as soon as conditions will permit. Even now enterprising action would enable the Government to so arrange matters that it would be possible within a few months to make a beginning upon the introduction of immigrants of approved qualifications. Unless such action is taken.in good time it is difficult to see how any really purposeful effort can be made even to overtake the arrears in national development work disclosed >n the Public Works Statement.