National Milestones

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 182, 22 October 1927, Page 8

National Milestones

PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT

Official Criticism of Arapuni Contract

(THE SUNS Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. AN army of 11,000 outside workers, and an administrative staff absorbing £138.000 in salaries —these form the force which is behind the public works of New Zealand. The prosecution of railway, road, and hydro-electric works of great magnitude continues to he a major part of the Public Works Department’s activities, as set out in that weighty document, the annual Public \\ orks Statement.

TN presenting his latest statement. the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. S. Williams, again propounds the principle that in public works construction it is imperative that national interests be paramount where they conflict with local desires. "In arriving at decisions where opposing interests are involved, I be guided by the Dominion scheme of construction, to ensure proper connee-

tions with the existing systems, by the expert reports of engineers, and by economy and efliciency of construction.” The foregoing observations are seen, in the course of the statement, to possess a direct application where reference is made to battles of routes, particularly as they apply to extensions of the railway system and to the paving of highways. The Department is adopting the policy, dictated largely by financial considerations, of restricting its road paving programme, to a large degree, to surfacing of the densely traversed roads radiating from the main centres of population such works to be encouraged, of course, by the distribution of subsidies. Further taxation to allow the highways programme to be carried on is forecast by the Minister, but no defin it.e statement is made, beyond the reiteration of the principle that the user must bear the main share of the cost. It is pointed out that motor taxation did not quite carry the burden of expenditure in 1926-27, and that a much greater deficit still is expected during the current year. Owing to these developments, more money must be provided. THREE MAIN ITEMS The estimates as a whole provide for expenditure approximating fairly closely to that of last year, when railway construction absorbed over onethird of the total outlay, while work on hydro-electric schemes and mainhighway formation each absorbed slightly over 16J per cent, of the total expenditure. Between them, therefore, these three salient items cost very nearly seventeen per cent, of the six and three-qut rter million which was the Dominion’s total bill for public works during the year 1926-27. Future works will follow very much the same lines, though there must naturally, as years pass, be a reduction in the heavy expenditure devoted to certain difficult and costly works.

The completion of the -neb of hydroelectric projects will relieve the ! Government of a burden of expendiI ture. Arapuni, unfortunately, is far behind, and Mr. F. W. Furkert. Engi* neer-in-Chief, Public Works Department, states definitely that ”a review of the whole situation cannot but disclose disappointing and unsatisfactory progress.” that the contractors’ progress at the power-house foundations has been so small as to be practically negligible. Meanwhile the Minister records joyously that the annual revenue from hydro-electric undertakings continues to increase, despite the fact that no new plants have been brought into operation during the year. The expenditure for the year, the sixteenth since the Dominion first tried its prentice hand at the harnessing of its streams, was £1,293,439, increasing from £5,134,496 to £6,427,935 the capital sum Invested in hydro-electri-city. From this outlay the revenue for 1926-27 was £364,412, an increase of 26.12 per cent. CONCERN IN AUCKLAND The Minister mentions in passing that Hora Hora, largely owing to the Arapuni delay, has been running for long periods on overload, and that, to help in meeting the peak load demand, the Grand Junction steam plant at Waihi, as well as three Nurnberg Diesel engines to be installed at Penrose, have been purchased. A remark that will cause the Auckland Power Board serious concern is the somewhat ingenuous observation that “every endeavour is being made to have at least one of the Diesel sets in operation by next June.” Before next June the Auckland Power Board will be faced with a peak load of something like 34,000 kilowatts, immeasurably greater than it has ever before had to carry, and unless the Penrose installation is ready at least a month before —it was originally promised for the beginning of the winter —the city will be faced with a light and power famine. Meanwhile the Government is proceeding with construction work at Mangahao, and new work at Waikaremoana, and the Minister forecasts that the latter scheme will be in operation by June, 1929. MAJOR RAILWAY WORKS The major railway works in the North Island are the North Auckland Main Trunk Railway, the East Coast Main Trunk Railway, the Napier-Gis-borne line, and the Stratford-Ohura line. Exceptionally difficult country has been encountered in the course of nearly all the undertakings now in progress. Treacherous formation caused all the cuttings on the Rangiahua section of the North Auckland railway to slip during the winter, and on the East Coast line, beyond Tahawai, there has been delay owing to the subsidence of embankments built across low-lying flats. A series of lofty and impressive viaducts will be \ a feature of the Napier-Wairoa section of the line to Gisborne, and on the Stratford-Ohura section difficult tunnelling through the divides of the Heao Valley will occupy the engineers for some time. The Auckland-Westfield deviation is j mentioned by the Minister, who states that excellent progress has been made. No specific grant for the Morningside tunnel, which Mr. Coates said might be started next year, is visible in the list of allocations.