PUBLIC WORKS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4883, 28 September 1925, Page 3

PUBLIC WORKS.

SUMMARY BY MINISTER. RAILWAYS, ROADS, AND PLANT. 11l summarising the operations of the Public Works Department the Hon. J. G. Coates, in the course of his remarks in the annual Public Works Statement, says :— “I would point out that in the past six years £6,357,301 has been expended on railway construction, and during ‘ that period 291 miles of railway have been brought under .traffic, Of which 100 miles have been handed over to the Railway Department' for working, while 191 miles are being operated by the Public Works. Department for the carriage of goods and passengers. The cost of sections handed over to the Railway Department was £4,836,420’, a large part of which was, expended prior to my assuming control of the department.

“On 4750 miles of road, including main highways, £3,724,500 have been expended, and during the period covered by such expenditure considerable improvements in road construction have been introduced. Bitumen penetration and sealing have been experimented with arid, adopted in placed where such protection to road surfaces was considered desirable and proved to be economical. “An area of 19,897 acres of ground has been irrigated, which involved the spending of £460,492, a considerable portion of which will provide for further areas on which water is available but which have not yet been brought into productivity. “The expenditure out of the Public Works Fund in connection with telegraph extension for the past six years has been £3,353,106, distributed annually as follows : 1919-20, £249,379 , 1920-21, £336,468 ; 1921-22, £590,981 ; 1922-23 £501,575 ; 1923-24, £717,409 ; 1924-25, £957,294. “A great deal of mechanical plant for the aiding of labour and the carrying out of heavy construction has been brought into use, the principal items of which-are: Thirty steam-' shovels, five drag-line excavators, 47 locomotives, steam, petrol, and electric ; 80 motor-lorries, 16 tractors, 20 concrete mixers, 22 power-driven winches, 13 air compressors, 19 stonecrushers, - 13 road rollers, bitumen bailers and sprayers, and a large array of machine tools; steam boilers, motors, cranes, and the other minor machines necessary for the successful operations of the larger units. “The care of the workers on the line has had the special attention of the officers of the department, and wherever practicable, and where works were likely to last any considerable time, huts have been provided, at. a total cost of £107,131. with which sum 2287 single men’s huts were built, and in addition 343 cottages for married men. “These ; are the leading features of the operations of the department, but the other activities have been carried on with equal efficiency, and at such a rate as appeared to be required by the. individual necessities of the case. “The object towards which the policy of the department is directed is -the providing of transport means adequate to the demand, whereby the primary producer, and, to a lesser extent the secondary industries, may be brought into convenient and economical communication with other markets, whether the same be overseas or local. Where .the produce to

be carried is heavy, or the distances are. long; the railway still, remains the cheapest method, and with the funds available, under a reasonable development scheme steady progress will be made, and all the disconnected links of the national system will be eventually connected, as well as in some cases pushing existing lines out into country at present unprovided with adequate transport. “With roads my sympathies have always primarily been with the settlers in the back-blocks, and while it is necessary in the march of modern progress to provide money whereby modern mechanical transport can be encouraged to operate over gradually increasing lengths, the primary ob‘ ject of ordinary public works road expenditure must be directed to the providing for opening up access into new country or providing better access to those settlers who in the past have bravely advanced into the wilderness and proceeded to carve out a home for themselves in advance of the reading facilities which were available in the older settled districts. “The institution of the Main Highways Board, and the declaration of some six thousand miles of main* highways, together . with their own finance, largely provided directly by the owners of mechanical transport,should make adequate provision for the communications which are required, as it were, between the pioneer back-blocks read and the railway or the port. “The highways scheme. is more or less in its infancy, but it has, even during the portion of the year in which it has been actively operating, done a very considerable amount of work, and as its finances improve as the result of the steady increase in the numbers of vehicles and the extent of their travel, so the facilities which can be derived will increase at an even greater rate. “With regard to .the hydro-electric development, my policy is well known. It is to make such arrangements as will result in an adequate supply of reasonably priced electricity being available for every person in the Dominion to whom it can be provided with an expectation of a satisfactory financial return.

“I hope as time goes on to have evesy public department housed in buildings- which will permit of departmental officers carrying out their ■duties with efficiency and comfort, and which will be a credit to the •general Government and to the country. At the same time the question ■of permanency and reasonable future •expansion will not be lost sight of. “With regard to irrigation operationp, so far these have been confined to the province of Otago almost entirely. and I hope to expand the area

under irrigation, and concurrently under intensive culture, as fast .as the .demand for land by new settlers requires, so that eventually every area of land which possesses the necessary elements of fertility, and to which water can be provided, may be brought into the maximum possible state of development. When the areas of Otago are fully developed, and quite likely before that, I am of opinion that the wonderful results thereby obtained will cause the farmers of many of the dry parts of Canterbury, and even Marlborough, to move for the provision of irrigation systems in their districts, and when that time comes it will be the policy of the Government to meet the demand.

“Generally speaking, while avoiding anything in the nature of a boom by means of borrowed money, I hope to continue to spend capital on works which have a reasonable prospect of financial soundness, and which will improve the general productiveness of the country and the comfort and contentment of its people.”