PROVISION FOR UNEMPLOYED

Hokitika Guardian, 9 February 1929, Page 2

PROVISION FOR UNEMPLOYED

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. (Taxpayer.) It is too early yet to criticise in any detail the Prime Minister’s railway constructioii and land settlement policy, which is’ being hastened 'forward, it is understood, in order to give relief to the ten . or twelve thousand manual workers now out of employment. It may be rpermissible from a purely nonparty point of view, however, to offer one or two suggestions to Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues in regard to the grave problem that coni routs them. That this young country, with less than a 'fifth of the population it could support in comfort and with thousands of acres of fertile land untouched or merely scratched, should have within

its borders ten or twelve thousand workers, unable to earn a livelihood for themselves or their dependents, is n positive tragedy, reflecting more or less upon every adult member of the community. Sir Joseph proposes to remedy this deplorable state of allairs by proceeding forthwith with the completion of several lines of railways , that have been in the course of construction for many years. COMPLETING LINKS. The unfinished lines that have been definitely indicated in connection with this enterprise are the Westport-lnan-galnia line, the Napier-Gisborne line, and the South Island Main Trunk, which between them, it is estimated, would cost just upon live millions to complete. The most formidable of these undertakings is the South' Island Main Trunk, which, at a cost ol two millions and a-liall, would complete the connection between the Bluff and Picton, and leave only the breadth ol Cook Strait to water travel between

the two islands. The new Minister of Public Works recently made an inspection of the two routes offering for the completion of this line, and judging from what lie since has said on the subject he was not greatly impressed by tb" prospects of either of them. His predecessor in office, the lion. K. S. Williams, laid down definitely that “ the original inland route must he abandoned on the ground of excessive cost,” and that the coast route “would be very heavy and would certainly not be less than estimates previously adopted for the inland route.” In face of these conclusions the Minister well may pause. the üblouitous motor. ]u considering a question ol this kind the übiquitous motor must be taken into account. In New Zealand, its effect upon the transport problem iias been no Jess revolutionary than it has been in America and in the Mother Country. Between 1921 and 1928 the railway mileage in the Dominion in-

creased from 3,009 to 3,180, the train milage from 0,303,,‘102 to 10,838,594, and the population, roughly, from 1,2-10,(100 to 1,-100.090, and yet the passenger journeys over the whole line ol railways decreased from 28,821,783 to 25,379.(505 in spite of all the efforts oT the authorities to motor competition. Ten years ago the average return upon railway investments in the United j Stales was S;J per cent. To-day it is | difliciilt to realise 3 per cent. The j British Economic Mission which recent.- ' ly visited Australia urged that it would j he bad policy to extend the railway j system in any direction before inquir- 1 ing whether neglected districts would not he better Mo ved by concrete roads. ! ALTERNATIVES. ! With these indisputable facts in view it may not be presumptuous to suggest, to Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues, j in the most friendly spirit possible, j that before .hastening on ilio eompie- ■ lion of the railways the Prime Minister has mentioned they should consider

the feasibility of ii .scheme of roadmaking ami land cultivation being substituted for the scheme of railway building and land settlement. Jn the opinion of many well-informed people when flu; three railways mentioned were completed at a cost of live million they still would he a drain upon the Exchequer (for many years. On the other hand, if half the live millions were used in placing two or three thousand of the unemployed upon small farms of their own making and the other half in loading the newly occupied districts the best interests oi the community would he much sooner and more effectively served. 'I lie 'larmmakers, of course, would receive wages for their labour, the amount they received being a charge upon their established property. Wellington, Keb. oth,