The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1948 PUBLIC WORKS

Grey River Argus, 22 September 1948, Page 4

The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1948 PUBLIC WORKS

the expenditure administered during the past year by the Public Works Department was £23,379,896, according to the Minister’s annua! statement yesterday, the amount chargeable to the Public Works Account was £12,376, 952, or abotii £1,100,000 less than the appropriation. The Department also carried out electrical construction to a value of £2,525,303. Chief items were: Housing, £6,639,018_; public buildings, £2,136,422-; education buildings, £1,065, 870; and highways, £1,333,303. In addition expenditure under other accounts totalled £9,942,609, the main items being: Highways maintenance, £2,859,037; plant, material and services, £4,549,324; salaries and expenses, £933,533, and other maintenance work, £927,377. Receipts totalled £6,406,794. For other Departments there was an outlay of £1,0.65,870. The biggest percentages were: Housing, 21.24. roads, 16.20, plant and materials, 14.56; public buildings, 10.25; hydro, 8.08. The years have seen a gradual change to building from communications (roads and railways), in the Department’s main undertakings, while electricity is likely to bulk yet more in coming years. The lag in public works due to the war is a present problem, accentuating the excess in demand over supply of materials, labour and equipment. The Minister says that the building controls have been beneficial and must continue, lest the more wealthy monopolise. meantime the labour and material available. Demands by Departments and local authorities for works have had to be pruned from £37,337,00 to £26,005,000 in the past year. More modern machinery is now being sought overseas, and the main hope rests in Broken Hill Proprietary and the Australian Government. The Department received £3,661,089 for highways maintenance, and nearly twice as much for other maintenance from the Consolidated Fund. The 12,734 houses built in the past year (3,122 more than the previous record) comprised 2,875 State rental ones, 693 Departmental, 200 for Maoris, and 8,966 private and local' body houses. There were 467 transit housing units built. At Rcefton the miners’ hostel gives accommodation for 58 persons, while other hostels were constructed to accommodate ,1,062 immigrants, and 489 State employees. At Mangakino over 340 cottages have been built, at the rate of three weekly. The Karapiro and Waikaremoana hydro schemes are now fully productive, and the Maraetai tunnel work has made considerable progress; also the Tekapo tunnel work. An earth dam to is to be made at Cobb River. Pukaki storage work is also progressing. Road surfacing set a record of 205 miles, and there now are 1330. miles of State highways. Great weight of vehicles is causing anxiety for road foundations, and it would be preferable to divert no little of this freight to rail and sea routes. New roading amounted to 83 miles and new construction and metalling to 154 miles. As regards new railway's the work was mostly of a survey character. New and important undertakings were those for soil conservation and river control. Good progress has been made with Hokitika’s new aerodrome. The Department is now maintaining about ninety aerodromes and landing grounds. The total Departmental staff at 3422 was last March 183 greater than in the previous year. The labour force this year numbered about 18,000, or 1,400 more than last year. The Town Planning staff has been increased with the demand for its services. An increasing demand up till .1958 for building and construction is foreseen. A considerable amount of roading work in Inangahua district is recorded, also deviations in South "Westland, , and Buller roading has been considerably augmented. Works in the way of control are recorded at no fewer than a dozen West Coast rivers. The Department has formulated proposals to accelerate housing in the present year.