The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1916. PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1916. PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

The Public Works Statement delivered in the House last night is commendabiy brief and to the point, and is quite in keeping with the times. No new loan is to be spent this year—quite a new departure for New Zealand. The unexpected votes and credits, however, will

provide a sum equal to that spent on public works last year—just under two and a half millions. Railway expenditure is to be cut down by something like £200,000, one of the works suffering bv this economy being the Stratford Main Trunk. But the more urgent roads ami bridges are to receive attention. A loan of a million is to be raised for railways, but this money, the Minister explains, will not be used until after the end of the present financial year, merely serving to keep work going until Parliament lias the opportunity of determining the future public works policy. The war by that time, we all hope, will be over. New Zealand, as the Minister says, is incurring heavy responsibilities in connection with the war. This was fairly heavy before the war. 11l 1907, for instance, the national debt was £02,138,972, or £6B per head «f the population. By 1913 it had grown to £87,457,121, or £B2 per head. Thij year it is no less than £105,957,433, or £96 per head. Most of this last increase we have to thank the Gqruia»s for. Parliament has now before it proposal? for loans totalling seventeen milli»>» only one million kting for public w»rks. By next March, then, »ur debt will amount to £123,808,000. We have to remember, however, that about seventyseven millions can be classed as directly or indirectly productive, the balance being unproductive. Practically all the new expenditure is for war purposes, and therefore unproductive. But we have no choice in the matter. We have to go on wasting our wealth, in common with the rest ot' the Empire, in crushing the enemy to mankind and removing once and for all the greatest menace that has ever beset our Empire. It is gratifying x> find, however, that the Government does not propose to cease public works expenditure altogether, as advo vated in some quarters. That would be a mistake, for the only which the country will be able to carry the added burden caused by the war is by increased production, and this can only come about by increasing the transport facilitiesotherwise, by building roads, bridges, and railways. The pace is slackened, certainly, but that is unavoidable, Even if the money were available it is doubtful if the necessary labor or materia) could be secured to carry on more than the very necessary works the Minister proposes to undertake this year. The votes in which the Taranaki provincial district is especially concerned are: £20,000 for the Opunake branch railway, and £70,000 for the Stratford MainTrunk line ( £50,000 for the east end and £20,000 for the west end), for which no doubt we should be duly thankful.