WALKED INTO A TRAP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 489, 19 October 1928, Page 16

WALKED INTO A TRAP

CITY’S MOTION ABOUT HIGHWAYS NOT BASED ON FACTS When the City Council passed a resolution on the motion on Cr. A. J. Stallwprthy, and forwarded it to the Government, it walked into a trap. Two months ago Cr. Stallworthy moved to urge the Government to expend unexpended balances in the Highways Account in a huge unemployment relief scheme. He asserted that the unexpended balances in July amounted to £922,887, and local body subsidies brought the total to £1,230,116. He estimated that this sum could be utilised to give work to 4,612 men at the rate of £4 a week for one year. His suggestion was that the Government should create an emergency account with the amounts available, and that the Highways Board should formulate four schemes, one,jn each centre, the Auckland one being the road from Auckland to Hamilton. To this assertion the Prime Minister replied at some length in a letter before the City Council last evening. He pointed out that the unexpended balances amounted to only half the amount stated, and that the policy of the Main Highways Board was to do all that had been suggested, and in fact more, except that it had not created an emergency account. This was due to the fact that the works in hand would reduce the reserves to an amount below which it was not considered that they should be reduced. The board had not only formulated four schemes, but actually had them in operation, while it also had a number of smaller schemes also under way. FACTS OVERLOOKED “Had the Highways Board not been working on this matter for many months, the work could not now be in progress,” remarked Mr. . Coates. “I cannot agree that the scheme you indicated could be brought into operation in a few .weeks. Your scheme involved the raising of £307,229 by local bodies, and your knowledge of procedure will make it clear that to raise this amount would require soipethirig more than a few weeks. “The mover overlooked one very important factor, and that was that of the accumulated funds in the hands of the board, a spm of under £50,000 belongs to the North Island, and less than half of this was collected in the vicinity of the two main centres.” The Prime Minister pointed out that the works proposed involved over £ 2,000,000, which was as much as, if not more than, the board could handle in the meantime. Cr. Stallworthy was not present when the letter came before the council. He arrived later. The council decided to send him a copy of the letter. .