PUBLIC WORKS VOTE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 124, 22 November 1932, Page 9

PUBLIC WORKS VOTE

THE ECONOMY BRAKE

FURTHER BIG REDUCTION

ALL ITEMS AFFECTED

In further pursuance of the policy of putting the brake, on Public Works expenditure, the Acting Minister (the Hon. C. E. Maeuiillan) indicated in tho annual statement presented in the House of Representatives this afternoon further economy measures designed to reduce last year's vote, by almost one half. • Reductions are foreshadowed" in every item of expenditures. The rate of Public Works expenditure until-the year 1930-31, said the' Minister, had been steadily increasing, and last year the brake had to be vigorous.ly. applied, even though so much work had to be provided for those thrown out of employment by the depression. It was certain that much the greater proportion of this, work could not any longer be met by the expenditure of borrowed money. In consequence of this the expenditure had dropped from £8,388,529 in the financial year 1930----31 to £4,815,542 last year, and for the current year provision would be made for £2,634,700, or a little more than half last year's expenditure. "These"figures," he said, "apply almost entirely to the expenditure of borrowed money, and do not give tho total sum expended under the control of the Public Works Department; but they dp indicate that borrowing of money for public works is being reduced as rapidly as is consistent with all existing circumstances. The activity of the Dc: partment itself, however, has not decreased in direct proportion to the reduction in loan expenditure. This is shown by the fact that although the proposed loan expenditure for the present financial year is only little more than one-half of last year's, and under one-third of the previous year's, the gross cash expenditure for this year will be approximately £4^,000,000, as compared with £5,787,771 last year and £8,098,301 for the previous year." DECREASES IN STAFF. "This: decrease in total expenditure must, of course, necessitate a decrease in the staff employed by the' Department. A reduction of nearly 40 per .cent, has been made in its members, which is approaching . a rate proportional to the expenditure reduction. A careful search into the possibility of further staff reorganisation is well in hand. "Quite a noticeable feature of my present Statement is the great reduction in railway expenditure as compared with the Statements of former years, Last year £590,543 was spent on new. construction, and this year will' not exceed £100,000. The Stratford Main Trunk railway is now the only railway work in hand as a charge against the Public Works Fund, and it should be completed.by the 31st March, 1933. The -Wellington-Tawa" Flat railway deviation is still under construction by the Public Works Department, but, the allocation for this work will be .reduced to less than half of what it was last year, as only a sum of £110,000 can be provided under the vote for improvements and additions to open lines. "Hydro-electric development this year will undergo overhaul and curtailment. It is anticipated that about onethird of last year's expenditure will be incurred. The large portion of this will be required for tlyj construction of the dam on the Waitaki River, ■ a work which..it h would be most unwise not to •carry, on at a sufficient .rate to ousuro its safety from floods. V. , • . - ; REDUCED BOADING VOTE. "There was still a' fairly large sum of money expended last year on roads and bridges. Local bodies have been able to employ a considerable .number of men on roadwork who would' otherwise have been thrown on to the lists of unemployed. The Department also carried a fairly large number of men on its road' relief works, which again reduced the number of unemployed, but this year it is not-possible to continue ,th}s; policy,, and the Government has Had perforce-to reduce the road 4fit<K this year by less than half of wha'tPit was last year. - -... "Similarly with respect to construction work on main highways carried out under the control of the department, heavy reductions must be made in the year's expenditure, although all urgent works, such as the repair or renewal of badly , deteriorated bridges, will be undertaken where there is danger to the public. "Generally it may be said that the expenditure on roads and highways has as far as possible • been limited to works that.will tend to increase the country's productivity, or to works that must be undertaken, to ensure public safety. Any expenditure of loanmoney apart'from these principles has had to be incurred to relieve the distress of unemployment until such time as the revenue of the Unemployment Board could be made available for this purpose. "One class of work which I have not hesitated- so much to undertake, and which will be more particularly referred to later on, is that of irrigation' of land. Expenditure in this direction is such as will result in an ultimate increase in economic farm production, even though it may not immediately bear, fruit, and I have therefore endeavoured'to keep a fair number of men employed in this way. "The erection of .public buildings in times of financial depression / must be restricted, and activity in this respect will be no more than a third of what it was last year, and will be confined to cases of absolute necessity. "There is no need for mo to refer here to) other votes under the Public Works Fund. . . Proportionate reductions will be made under all votes. UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF. "The Public Works Department is' undertaking the building of the greater portion of the small cottages which are being erected on the 10-acre plots of land acquired for unemployed workers. To date 288 cottages have been built by the Department on 10-aoro plots, at a cost of approximately £49,000. "The Unemployment Board is also entrusting to the Department the expenditure of a small part of its funds for relief of . unemployment. This money has. until recently been expended mostly on road-construction, but a proportion of the funds is now being used for tho reclamation of land, chielly on drainage-works and on landclearing. Out of a total of 3421 men employed by the. Department with monetary assistance from the Unemployment Board, more than half are now engaged on land development." "Considerable widening and im-1 provement of roads was carried out in the early stages, but it was decided that much more beneficial results would he obtained if this money could be-used to metal roads to backbloclc farms. This proposal was agreed to by the Unemployment Board, and the greater portion of .the relief workers now on roads are employed on metalling schemes." The statement contains a graph showing the annual public works loan expenditure and tho expenditure per head of population from 1920 to 1932. The estimated loan expenditure for the year 1932-33 has been added to show the continued drop from tho year 1031. The graph shows that loan expenditure, after climbing from £2,250,000 in lf)°0 to over £8,000,000 in 1931, will this year drop below the 1920 figure, and that the expenditure per head of population h*s dropped from .£5 7s 6d in