The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. "We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1917 THE WAIUKU RAILWAY

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 310, 14 September 1917, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. "We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1917 THE WAIUKU RAILWAY

A good deal of irritation has been expressed in this district at the repeated failures of the Public Works Department to carry out its promises that the railway should be completed as far as the Mauku station. Patumahoe has had the use of its station for the carriage of goods for many months and there can be no possible excuse for not fitting up the Mauku station similarly. The rails have been laid for a long time, and only the ballasting of the line and the completion of the loading bank, platform and sheds remain to be done.

Anyone wishing to learn how things ought not to be done would find an excellent object lesson in tho construction of this small line. The one concern of the Public Works Department would appear to be to fritter away as much money and time as possible in executing the least possible amount of work. Gangs of men are out here and there doing a few hours' or days' work without apparently any settled plan or concerted attempt to get fuither forward. Loads of material aro dumped down where not required and presently picked up again and cirted to some other place where they are not likely to be wanted. Reliable statements go so far as t - speak of heaps of fencing posts berg thus removed as often as five times. A shed at the Mauku station is being built in easy stages, and unless some unforeseen accident should interfere with its progress will be easily completed inside of twj years Any private contractor who imitated the ways of the Public Works Department would be hopelessly bankrupt in a month or two, but tho tax payer has a long purse and apparently a still longer patience. There was no more caustic critic of tho dilly-d illying wasteful ineptitudes of his pro decessors than the present Minis'er for Public Works, but ho appears now to have not only adopted all of their shortcomings but to have brought them to a pitch of refinement calculated to make all previous holders of tho office turn grooti with envy.