The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1919. VOTES FOR PUBLIC WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 October 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1919. VOTES FOR PUBLIC WORKS.

The peculiar incident connected I with the Railways Authorisation i Bill, wherein was included by ("mistake" the Opunake-Moturoa line, whieh was subsequently deleted, once more draws attention to the evils of the present practice whereby public works are authorised or tiumed down at the arbitrary will of a single Minister. Although the existing method has been strongly condemned for many years past, and by none more than the members of the present Government, it still flourishes like a rank weed in the political garden. It has been used by Governments, by parties, and by politicians for the sordid purpose of vote catching, hence the custom has been on the eve of an election to find the Public Works Estimates showing a notice--able expansion, and so designed as to be a factor in keeping the Government of the day in office. We are not concerned, for the moment, whether or not the hopes of roads, railways, bridges, and other works materialise, or are mere paper records of promises. It is the iniquitous system itself against which no protest can be too strong; no demand for its destruction too insistent. When Mr. Massey and his party formed the Opposition, among the many reforms for which they clamoi;ed was the introduction of legislation "to abolish the pernicious system of constructing "roads and bridges in the Dominion out of votes on the Public "Works Fund which are dependent on the will and pleasure of Ministers of the Crown." How have they fulfilled the implied pledge? They have done nothing to remedy the evil which they, in common ' with all people of ordinary business intelligence, denounced scathingly and forcibly. Possibly they, too, found it convenient to have the means of rewarding friends and inflicting punishment on opponents, and the old evil has become aggravated. It may here be stated that "the construction of the OpunakeMoturoa line was one of those public works which Sir "William Praser, during the war, pointed to as a means for giving employment to returned soldiers, and yet, for some reason or as the result of political wire pulling, he thrusts the work aside. Against the continuance of what Mr. Massey has branded as a pernicious system, there should now be a straight-out campaign, both on moral and economical grounds. If it was necessary to sweep away patronage in civil service appointment, how much the more it is imperative to abolish a system that savors of bribery and corruption, besides being extravagant and unbusinesslike? If the Government had taken to heart the advice of Mr. Hiley to concentrate upon five railways, "instead of dallying over twenty, there would to-day have been substantial results, while the cost of supervision would have been greatly lessened, and the revenue earning capacity of the completed lines would have been a welcome addition to the country's finances. There is but one remedy—the establishment of a non-political board of men well qualified- to ascertain whieh are

the most urgent public works to j be carried out and capable of allocating such money as the country can supply for the execution of those works. Politics have not yet been sufficiently purified from the old evil customs to justify a continuance of the present system, which is demoralising and unworthy of an enlightened country which professes to be in the van of progress. The system stands condemned, and should no longer be tolerated. It is to be hoped that the new Parliament will take this matter in hantj as one of urgency. The remedy is waiting ready at hand.