"ALL FOR AUCKLAND"

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 62, 7 December 1920, Page 7

"ALL FOR AUCKLAND"

———— EXPENDITURE OF PUBLIC MONEY " / AN UNFAIR " PULL " ALLEGED • PROGRESS LEAGUE UP IN ARMS ' • Statements that Government expendi,ture on railway and 1 roads was not fairly distributed were contained in a report on "railways" tabled at last night's meeting of the 'Central Progress League 'by the secretary, Mr. G. Mitchell, M.P. "I havo." he stated, "gone through the Public Works Estimates, and submit a comparative statement showing the vote and expenditure on railways and roads for three "years ending 1920, also tho vote for the current year. Members of 'the league and tho people of our district, will not find much satisfaction in the public works progress during, tho period mentioned, nor in the proposals for the present year. The vote for the Auckland district during tho three years ending 1920 was .£658,110, and that for 'the other half of the North Island and Marlborough and! Nelson for the same period .£445,100, and the voile for the present year and 500 respectively, bnt the amounts spent bear no relation to fcheae figures, so far as districts outside the northern one are concerned. "Just Cause for Complaint." ■ I "Allowing that the allocation is just In comparison with the needs of the country, it is fair to expect that the amount; voted would he snoot proportionately and justly. On. these grounds the people, outside tho Auckland 1 province, have just cause for complaint" The proportion spent in 1919-20 is as follows, Auckland' province (population 308,760), *8811,000 voted, .£321,393 spent; central distrioti (population : 462,165), i! 197,600 voted, .£108,711 spent. In other words, the large vote for the north is overspent by *811,000, and the small vote for tho south is undor-sjient by *690,889. ■ The same may bo said, although to a lesser extent, of the road vote, which is as follows for the three years' ending 1920:— - „ . • Voted. Spent. Pop. £ 'Anck. Boad Dist. 71,369 521,074 71,3.69 ,Wgtn. Boad Dist. 52,790 160,212 16,006 "Excepting the' railway construction Irote for ■ the Auckland province, the votes plaoed on the Estimates have little, or no face value, and merely delude the people concerned into the belief that thoy are getting, or are likely to got, vote expended and the work carried out.,, 1 ' In view'of the fact that the war may be quoted as a. factor against spend-1 ing the money voted, I have quoted the ' war years/ 1917-18-19-20, which ehew that 95 per cent, of the railway vote was spent in ithe\ northern province, and only 50 per cent, in our own. > ■ ■ "It -will be seen: that the total vote for. tho year just closed for the' NapierGisborne railways iraa .275,000, of which only £12,886 was spent, leaving *£32,131 not spent. Thero is no question that •this railway is one of the most Urgent and important in tho Dominion. It will open up more country than any other railway, not excluding thoso in the Auckland province, yot it has' receiveid very unfair treatment in comparison ,witm those in the north. Stratford Main Trunk. "I would also draw your attention to the Stratford Main Trunk railway. Of a vote of *630,000 for the eastern end, ■£37,700 was spent, of a vote of *220,000 for the western end,' only *813,700 was spent, and the vote this year is *850,000 for the eastern end and *£15,000 for tho western end, whioh is not likely to be spent. It is said that some tunnels and bad. country is holding up tho western end, but as .this country has got to bo pierced there is no apparent rtsison why the work should not be pushed on' at both ends. "If this line was completed the trade would naturally go to the Straitfoi-d end, but so long as the line is uncompleted the trade from the eastern end will go to Auckland, and the Taranaki people can be forgiven when they feel an injustice at what they consider an unfair pull to the northern citv Deviations. "No provision whatever has been made for ■ the Rimutnka deviation, and only the same p£r annual, vote of *£1000 for the Paekakariki. Your secretary has written to the Prime iMinister in reference to his promise re tho Bimutaka. ... South Island Main Trunk. "The vote of *815,000 for the South Island Main Trunk has been renewed. Tho sum of *8133 was spent last year on • this line, probably to keep the sand off the rails. already down. But this has been a dud vote for' sortie years, and there is no .reason to believe it will be otherwiso itbi'6 one. Midland Railway. "Only *826 was spent last year on the Midland railway, Nelson end. In Telerence to this and other works where the vote has not been spont, and for which a vote is now on the Estimates, 1 that the Minister be written to Inquiring if it is intended to spend the vote this year. '. "Wellington's Small Dole. . "The ftmounjfc of the road vote spent is particularly unfavourable to the Wellington road district. "Whether the fault lies with the Government or with tho local bodies concerned I am not in a position to 6taite, but the fact that in. the Wellington road district for three years only *£16,000, or 10 por cent., was spent out of a .total, vote of *6160,212, which is the lowest in the North Island or- Nelson and Marlborough, surely shows one of two things: eftlier the votes were placed on the Estimates for works which 'wore not unrent and not intended (to bo spent, oi those responsible have failed to spend the money allocated. / i " nr ® not in that proud position to claim that the roading of our province is complete, and we do not need to spend tho money voted. The only progressive policy is the assumption thnit all monsys voted are . urgently needed* and when voted should bo at oncc used in carrying out the works for which they are voted. 'Tour executive appeals to all-local bodies to use overy effort to assi:re that the votes allocated .for public works in their districts are spent." Very Long-suffering. the diwussion on the report, Mr. W. Stuart Wilson raised the question as to whether other Government Departments were also favouring Auckland nnd spending their money in tho sauio inequitable proportion. It would ho i verv bad thing indeed for the rest of. the Dominion if they were. They should endeavour to find out whether all the Department* were committed to spending, their funds in the Auckland district. "I I don't know," ho added, "but I beTievu they' are doing the same thing in connection with the Education Department." The chairman, Mr. C. Sf. Luke, In pointing out that in three years only 10 per cent, of the Wellington district's road vote was spent, remarked: "We aro very long-suffering." Mr. W. A. Veitcli, M.P., said that ho believed that something like the same ratio of expenditure in favour of Auckland obtained right throughout all the Public Service. "If," he remarked, "you pnt the Auckland commercial zone into one schedule you will find .8321,894 expended, while in tho balance of New Zealand thore was expended .£313,269. That is that just a trifle over half of tho whole of the money spent in the entire Dominion (in one year) in road and bridges votes went to the Auckland commercial zone. Again, take the roads votes for 1920-21, and you v/itl find *6789,000 for the Auckland somniercial zono and ,6798,000 for the rest of the Dominion." Mr. Veitcli ndded that it was a most sorious position when ono came to figure it all out. Political Influence. In the course of a general discussion, the opinion was expressed that Auckland saw to it that every political influence at its command was brought to bear in its favour, to tho neglect, very often, of the rest or the .Dominion. The Auckland distriot was very etrongly organised, and

it lieod its organisation "alt for AuckJtr. Wilson statod that there was still a strong feeling in .Auckland that the capital of iho Dominion should be shifted to there Mr. W. H. Vielil, M.P.: Thero is not much fcar of that. The chairman said that; the reprtrt beforo them, if nothing else, completely ■justified the formation of the Progress League. It behoved not only the League, but"the vholo community, to wake up and pull together in order_ to ensure that they »ot something like justice m this and other districts outsid.; of the Auckland commercial zone. The report wis adopted, without further discussion.