PUBLIC WORKS VOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 3

PUBLIC WORKS VOTES.

MINISTER’S ANSWER TO MR. JENNINGS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 2. The disappearance from the Public Works Estimates of a number of items, mostly subsidies on the £ for £ basis, formed the subject of a question which Mr. W. T. Jennings (Waitomo) asked the Minister for Public Works (Hon. J. G. Coates) in the House to-day. In many cases, he said the Economies Commission had struck them out where they had not been applied for, and he wished to know whether, in the event of the local bodies concerned asking for their reinstatement, the Minister would accede to the request. Mr. Coates said that the votes had not been struck out by the Economies Commission. The vdtes were items had appeared in the estimates for a number of years and bad not been expended. The items remained, but no vote was shown against them. The estimates would show’ a record of votes that had been made for years, so that members would be able to remind the Minister that they had been applied for. The money had been transferred to urgent works. The local authorities had been asked not to attempt any works that could stand over, and to see that votes asked for should be for things that weie considered urgent. When the estimates were considered in future years, the items would be there and it would be possible to restore votes to them as the money became available.