Public Works Expenditure.

Manawatu Herald, 29 December 1904, Page 2

Public Works Expenditure.

Mr Vile, M.H.K., delivered, the following in his political address at Marton the other night - He said he - did not intend to go into details in a general way as to the Public Works . expenditure, but he would say he thought the money was not being spent in an economical manner; A great deal olf money ought to be saved under this head. He proposed to : , show how unfair the -monies were allocated, and briefly quoted from Hansard in support of this. Referring to the comparison between the , West Coast of the South Island and the whole of the North Island ; he : pointed out that the votes granted ' totalled/in,iox for the West Coast, and for similar work in the whole of the North Island, £210,980 was aU that was received, although the population was eight times larger. Last year he called attention of the House : to the fact that certain districts in the colony—meaning the West Coast— . received more than their fair share of public expenditure. And it was so now. He found by comparison that the most favoured part ot the colony, which was represented by two Ministers and three Government supporters, had provided on the estimates expenditure equal to £2 per head of the ! - population as against ios per head for. ■; the population of the North Island., In railways the North Island allocation for the present year totals £192,000 and the population was 400,000. The expenditure on West Coast, including the Hurumui electorate, was /go,ooo with a population of 6000. A , similar average worked out as in the’ other case. The land was valuelessdown there, and to prove this he meu-, tioned that the Government advertised about 400,000 acres (in Marlborough, Nelson and Westland districts) for lease, but an average price of only £1 per 1000 acres was received. Mr - Alison, member for Waitemata, who condemned the Government’s Public Works expenditure had shown that the electorate of Westland had received during the past four years £108,956 for roads, bridges and public buildings, against £6366 tor his own electorate, although his electorate had a greater capital value. Now he would make a comparison as between Westland and Manawatu. For the past eight years (six years of which it was represented by a Government member the Government had spent, including the Levin water races, £17,000, and he would undertake to. say that Manawatu provides more than ' Westland in produce value. The population of Mr Seddon’s electorate - was nearly 1000 less than .Manawatu, . and in comparing the respective sums —eight years in Westland would work out at £200,000,. the whole business ; was preposterous and disgraceful. Besides the amount mentioned, the ad- , ministrator spent last year above the estimates £4883 in Westland, whilst* only £I2OO was spent in the North Island. This over-expenditure could not have taken place but for the iniquitous Act known as the Public Revenues Act of xgoo—an Act that is a disgrace to Parliament.