MEMBER FOR TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 February 1922, Page 5

MEMBER FOR TARANAKI.

CRITICISM ON PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT. ELECTRIC POWER DISTRIBUTION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Wednesday. Mr. S. G. Smith (Taranaki), speaking in the Public Works debate, thought that in his diatrict more assistance ought to have been given to settlers who needed better roads. Where, only small sums were required to make possible the metalling of short pieces of road the department ought to wipe the jobs off and save.ttfe settlere the trouble of continually renewing their requests. In the Inglewood County only £2OOO or £3OOO was needed to meet the most pressing needs. He supported Mr. Masters’ complaint that injustice was being done to Taranaki by the cessation of work at the Tahora end of the Stratford—Main Trunk railway. In the Public Works Statement the Minister gave his opinion about the necessity for electric power boards. He seemed incidentally to cast an insult at munici pa? authorities and overlook the good that some of these had done up to the present. The Minister even appeared to suggest that some local authorities were exploiting the consumer. New Plymouth was generating its own electric power. He believed the borough council was prepared to sell to adjoining authorities until the Government supply was available. There was no exploitation of consumers in Taranaki.