N.S.W. RAILWAYS

Shannon News, 6 January 1928, Page 3

N.S.W. RAILWAYS

MINISTER IN SORE STRAITS. . ’CAN ANYBODY LEND ME . £50,000,000?'/, . "Can anybody lend me fifty million pounds?” asked the Alinister for Works and Railways (not very hopefully) , ,says a Sydney paper. There was a jingle of small change in various pockets round the room; but'Air Buttenshaw knew that he had asked too much. “I think I could carry on with about fifty millions," he said with a sigh. “There is so much bo done.” There is. And Air Buttenshaw, as head of the biggest spending department in the Government, knows it, only too well. He knows also that most of it has no hope of getting done.

In short, the Government is hard up. Every estimate is being made to pare down the lavish estimates prepared by the last Administration and which promise a deficit of three arid a half millions.

Nevertheless, there is no intention of calling a halt on the importan, works already in hand. The harbour bridge and the city railway will be pushed on. An effort will also be made to get going with some of the more- urgent "works in the country.

But the call for economy is sounding louder day by d.ay, and Cabinet has asked Mr Buttenshaw to make a substantial cut m his department’s estimates. ~

He may save something by modifying th'e plans for the city railway as far as the crossing of the Quay is concerned.

Works such as th e Eastern Sub urbs railway and the line from St. Leonards to Eastwood have not a dog’s chance as far as can be seen at present. ; Efforts have been made to bring pressure to bear on Mr Buttenshaw to abandon city works so that the' money can be spent in the bush As leader of the Country Party he is awake to the needs of the outback, but he is determined to hold a sane balance.

While he will endeavour to see that some of the needs of the rural districts are catered for he ’will not throw to the winds the money that has been sunk in services which when coihpleted, ■will commence to pay for themselves.