UNCOMPLETED RAILWAYS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 447, 1 June 1937, Page 3

UNCOMPLETED RAILWAYS

PUBLIC WORKS POLICY Statement By Minister Gisborne, June 1. “The Gisborne railway may not pay in a year or two —it may not pay for many years—bnt we had to save something out of the wreck.’’ said the Minister of Public Works, Hon. R. Semple, when addressing a gathering in Te Puia. Reviewing the public works policy of resuming work on uncompleted railways, Mr Semple said that £3,500,000 had already been spent on the railway when it 'was stopped, and £l,soo,ooftrtvas required to complete the work. It would not have been Ion? before the original £3,500,000 had ben paid out in interest. The Government at one time had eight railways in progress, and after £8,000,000 was spent all were stopped. On them ‘£3.000,000 had been paid in interest up to March 31 last. Three of those railways had been restarted, but some of them would never be started again because, they had not been economically planned. Nb country with a population like the Dominion’s could afford to commit blunders like that.