PUBLIC WORKS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2495, 19 October 1922, Page 2

PUBLIC WORKS.

RECORD EXPENDITURE. STATEMENT TX HOUSE. The Minister for Public Works delivered his 1922 Statement in the House on Tuesday showing 1 that ilie total expenditure on railways, li.vdro-eleotric, roads, bridge, and irrigation construction works during the past financial year passed all previous records in the history of the Dominion.

The total not expenditure under all voles and accounts appearing on the public works estimates for the liiianeial year ended March 31st, 1922, was fit,922.039. Of this; sum /J 0,286,687 was expended out of the Public Works Fund, and the balance, 1-1,930,3f>2 out of accounts which have their own ways and means, and are quite sepai’ate from the Public Works Fund.

The estimated expenditure on public works for the current year (exclusive of accounts which have their own ways and means) is 1*4,9!.7.223. Exclusive of the before-mention-ed funds, .statutory authority at present exists for raising (he following moneys for public undertaking.- which are not chargeable against the Public Works Fund, but which have their own statutory ways and means, viz.:—Aid to Wa-ter-power Works Act, 1910, £31.099: Finance Act, 1919, (addition for Waihou and Ohinomuri Rivers Improvement Account), £34,000: Electric-Power Works Loan, 1919, £4,229,990; Finance Act, 1920, section 15 (electric-power works), £2,750,000; total, £7,044,990. The net expenditure on construc-tions,-maintenance, and supervision of railways for the financial year was £3,205,440. The expenditure on educational buildings was £505,070. This expenditure exceeded by over £IOO,.900 that for the previous year, which wa.- at that time a record. The large expenditure was owing to the fact that during the wartime the amount approved for the erection of educational buildings was reduced to a minimum, and after the war closed very substantial grants were, approved to overtake the arrears of‘urgent works, the cost of which had greatly increased. Of the total expenditure, .£328,228 was for primary schools, £101.199 for technical school buildings, £Bl,197 for secondary schools. and £39,071 for University building-. At the close of the year there were before the Department applications amounting under all heads to £OOO,370, of which £401,403 had reference t<> public schools. The urgent necessity of providing funds for the many pressing requirements is fully recognised, and it is hoped, in the not-far-distant future, to revert to the progressive building policy initiated a few years ago..

The sum provided on the estimates for the year ending March 3.lst 1922. for road and bridge construction and maintenance was less than for the previous year, but the expenditure has been greater —indeed, the heaviest on record for this class of work.

With ;i view to increasing: the general productivity of the Domini,.n. the expenditure lias been eonlined principally to those roads that are at present the only means of eomniuniention to and throughout settled districts where railway facilities do not exist, and in the development of new districts. It is estimated there are at the present time approximately 50,000 miles of formed roads and bridle-tracks in the Dominion, of which 27,000 miles are metalled. It is further estimated that an additional 20,000 miles require to he formed before the roadiuo- ( if ihe Dominion can he considered complete. The total running cost of the Lake Coleridge hydro-electric scheme was £55,310 (including interest and depreciation.) The revenue amounted to £50,814, showing a net profit of £1,498. This amount was paid oil the accumulated deficiency for the previous year of operation, which now stands at a net debit of £29,175. .Although the scheme is thus showing a profit on the accounts, no sinking fund is yet provided. Had this sinking fund been paid last year it would have converted the profit of £1,498 into n loss of £4,458, and had it been paid from the inception of the undertaking it would have increased lbe accumulated deficiency on the net revenue account by £29,855. The Horahora power plant showed a profit, of £2,522, which, if sinking fund had been allowed, would have been converted into a loss of £59. AT MANGAHAO. At Mangahao substantial progress litis been made with the excavation and lining of the two main tunnels, the by-pass tunnel for the Mangahao dam, the excavation for the Mangahao and Arapeti dams, the foundations for the power-house, and with the transmission lines to Wellington. For the supply of the necessary materials 35 contracts amounting in all to £277,00(1, have been placed. The installations, when completed, will have a capacity of 24,000 h.p., which is the full capacity of the available water supply. The distribution of the power will he entrusted to Wellington City and seven electric-power boards’ which have been constituted for the purpose. Each of these power boards is making good progress. The power will, of course, he supplied to the districts which are first ready to take supply, and, obviously, power cannot be held idle for any district unless it is paid for. But ou

the basis of all being ready to take up their quota on the completion of the headworks and distribution lines, the following allocation lias been made: — Wellington Ctiv and districtfl‘2,000 horse-power; Hutt Valley El-eetrie-power Board, 2,000; Horowhenua Electric-power Board, 1,200; Manawatu Electric-power Board? 3,300; Rangitikei Eleetriepower Board, 1,800; Wairarapa Electric-power Board. 2,000; Tararua Electric-power Board, 1,000; Dannevirke Electrie-power Board, 1,300.

Negotiations are now in hand for the contract for the supply to Wellington Cti.v, but the power boards have not yet entered into negotiations for their supply contracts. The above allocations amount to abnut one in ten of the population—approximately the same proportion as the output of the Lake Coleridge and Waipori plants bears to the population of the districts supplied. If is therefore antiepated that Mangahao will he fully loaded to the same extent as those plants now are within a very few years of the inception of supply, and that it will then become necessary to supplement the supply by joining up with Waikareinoana. THE ESTIMATES. SOME ITEMS OF INTEREST. Tn. the estimates for the coming year the following items oc-eur: — Fox ton Police Station £2,000. Parliamentary Buildings, £llO,900. Alteration to Palmerston North Courthouse, £6OO. Eketahuna police station. £1,500. Rongoiea loek-up, £IOO. Dannevirke post office (on account), £IO,OOO. Alteration find additions to Levitt Dost office. £450. Additions to Mart on post office, £5.000. Palmerston North post office garage and workshops, £1,625; fireproofing cable shute, £160; automatic exchange wiring, £2OO. Manawatu River improvements, £SOO. Passage-money for immigrants, £270,000.