Last Night's Sitting.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3624, 7 August 1880, Page 2

Last Night's Sitting.

Public Works Statement.

Tbe Hon. Mr Oliver, Minister of Public Works, delivered the following Statement in the House last night :—

Sib,—Following the usual course, I propose to begin by briefly reporting the operations of the Public Works Department for,the seven months'which have elapsed since I had a like honour- last i December. I shall condense this part of my statement as much as possible, as I ; do not wish to weary the House with a multiplicity of details, and because it will, when printed, be accompanied by full reports from the various heads of departments, by copious tables,' and-by maps, which I hope hon. members'will find useful us exhibiting the progress we I)are made in the construction of the railways already authorised. NORTH ISLAND RAILWAYS. - KatU £awa Rai&ttat. — Beginning with jailway. construction in the! north of tliis i«land, the work ou the Kawa Zawa coal line has been continued. A bridge, which is the most important work; except/ the terminal wharf, is in course of con*

vtruction. . „ Wangabel'Kamo . Railway. — Works let on the Kamo cou tract of the Wa^ garei railway have been much delayed by (be contractor, and are not yet finished, | althouuh tbe contract time-has expired* The delay has seriously interfered with the coal trade of the district; and, with a view of assisting this industry, I have sanctioned'the laying of a branch to connect the main Jins with the shipping place in the Borough, of Whaugarei, the local authorities having permitted the use of tbe streets for tbat purpose. An explora* tory survey between Helebsville and Whangarei Las been made, for the pur* poje of ascertaining the practicability of •

constricting a railway through that country. Another surrey of a similar character has been made of the district

between Whangarei and Kawa Kawa. Reports on these routes, with explanatory maps, will be placed in the hands of hon members.

Kaipaba • Waikato Railway. — The wharf at Helensville, on the Kaipara-

Waikato Railway, has been finished satis* factorily, and the station buildings are nearly completed. The line between Newmarket junction and Waikomiti has been finished and opened for traffic, the gap, howerer, between Helensrille and Auckland, caused by the non-completion of the Waitakere contract, still remains, and the condition of the work at the iiimmit pjires no pronrse thafit will be finished in the contract time, which ends in September next. The Workshop site Contract at Newmarket ia being pushed ahead energetically. J ' The contractor for the reclamation in Auckland baring failed to carry out hia contract, it was taken out of his hands, and a portion of it has been re-let to another contractor. ' - The Ohaupo contract has been finished and the Waikato railway is open as far south as Te Awamutu, about two and ahalf miles from the confiscated boundary. WAIKATO-THAMES BAILWAY. Tho Grahamstown contract of the Waikato-Thames Railway, is completed, and the Shortland oentract nearly. The Waikato contract, extending twelre and-^sjl three quarter miles east from Hamilton, is progressing faromrably. A survey of this line has been completed from Hamilton to Te Aroha, and np the Thames Valley, for thirteen miles from Grahams* town, learing about nineteen miles still unsurreyed.- r * Foxton and New Plymouth Bail* wat.»The railway from New Plymouth was opened as far as Stratford on the 19th December, and a further section to Ngaire will, it is expected, be open in a few weeks. Some other portions .of this line between Stratford and : Carlyle are under contract.' Some are being done by day labour, and between Carlyle and Wanganui the Waitojara contract is approaching completion. Tlie Warerly section is in band, and the Carlyle -wharf contract has been let, while some of the works in the neighbourhood of Carlyle are now being prepared for absorbing unemployed labour. Commodious work-" shops hare been built, at Wanganui,;' and" a contract has been- made for/ V ne^ railway station and wharf at Foxton. \ , WELLINGTON-WoODriLLB JBaILWAT^-'

On the Wellington-WobdvtUe Kail way». the works of the Carterton section over,, twenty miles hare been Vigorously prose* cuted by the department,- the .avenge number of men employed being. 275.. It is expected by September nert the .whaU distance• between Wellington and Misterton will be opened for, traffic; Th* Grey town branch was opened oft the 26th of May. With the view of finding work for the unemployed in this district, tome, men hare been engaged ja earthwork and 1 bush clearing oa Otaki section, beyond' . the . Carterton contract, and on the Grafton section of the Wellington-Fokfou Railway. Sometimes as many as 350 of the unemployed hare been set to work. The number has now fallen below; 100* •

Napier-Woodvillb Eaii.wat.—The Napier*Woodyille railway, is - nearly completed to Mabatoko, about; 70 miles from Napier, and the last contract of 4r« and three-quarters, miles will shortly be ready for public traffic. J WbrkVaHrbeing pushed on towards Tahoraite, about 12 miles farther, and surrey* of the country to the south have beenccompleted.forf r about 15 miles more. ■•-',' ■-■■«/ :

Napikb- Wamjn&fobd. —An examin»»/ tion of the .country: from Napier to Walliagford, through the district betwetli the Tukituki rirer and the sea coast, has' been made, bat the country, seeml; tip be 'Very unsuitable for railway ebpstftior tion.. . „ „, ..,' .;:;,: Hs..;"■';:; jpDDLE ISLAND RAILWAYS. 5 '■ The works on the Nelson to Greymouthf line, at the northern end, hare been odh* 1 fined . to the completion of iue .rail*rajr t connecting the city of Nelson with the port, and an extension three miles beyond Foxhill, by the Belgrove oon tract, is now; almost completed. At* the Greymouth end the Still water oontraot,' an extension! of the original Brunner railway for ikree* quarters of a mile, has been found to be a work of considerable difficulty r«nrt expense. The oontraot price' for sixty-threi" chains is £12,234 for formation only.'* The harbour works at Greymoatfa, which' hare been carried on as a part of. the improvements designed to develop'the coal industry in that district; were, almost suspended for seme little time while awaiting Sir John Coode's report. It arrived in March last,.and it is .satisfao* tory to find that the work*: already executed has been approved and adopted by him as part of J hip design/ an, |h« hokitika- Greymouni /railway^-jj small contracts have either been finished

or are near completion, and {no works were begun this year. On tbe Pietou> Hui.moui railway, the last one and aquarter miles of the railway, from PietoA* to Blenheim,.have been completed, aid;,. the statioa buildings at Blenhim are in hand. . The new works on the main line from Hmrunui to Waifaki are the Waipara contract of.seven miles, extending from Amberley to the Waipara' river, and the Weka Pass section, nine miles long, a continuation of the line through the Faas to the Waikara'and Uuranui Plains. The latter section was reserved fronraftßtraet in order* to provide work for the lnamployed of Christchurch; On the Spring* field branoh, the extension of.the Malvern branch to the Springfield Colliery,..was, completed in February, last. The Elkes-j mere formation, contract on, tbe. Little:, River and Akaroa branch was'finished J^,' March. A contract has just been made ' for a portion of the platelaying.' On the Ashburton branch the first ten and three quarter miles were" open for triffio btail the 7th April. The bridge over the Opawa river has been built trf .contract, and the remainder of the work, with the

exception of another bridge, hat been reserved in order to give work .to the anemployed in the neighborhood. On the Canterbury interior main line the.on^v: works which have been oarried on dmrinf the year are two bridges of the Syr^'kna';^ Temuka rivers, which are !( now finiih«d % L The work on the main line south; ofship' Waitaki has been almost entirf Ijr eonfioed 1 to the improvement on «fetioai, ; JhVu increase of wharfage, and other neotfaajy,;; accommodation. ■-■''■"< „L ;.'•.■>.■',; , „; Farther railway extension has been made on the following branoh lines, vit.: •The Livingstone branch, the Catlin'a River, Tajwntti, fitfmdale,, Lomideti,;j ptautau, and Orepuki branches, and on the Otago Central railway. On the latter

the Wingatui section is a tender contract, and at the Hinnon section work has been afforded to a large number of the unemployed. THE UNEMPLOYED. ...

The great depression from which nearly •11 oar industries have suffered lately has thrown many workmen out of employment, and the Government have been called to alleviate the consequent distress by finding work for them on the railways and roads, which are in course of construction. We have thought it our duty to comply with these requests, and 1 am sorry to say that no less than 1674 of these men are now heing employed at low wages in various parts of the colony. Although it is to be deplored that in a new country of such great natural resources as New Zealand this state of things should exist, yet it is by no neans a new experience in the history of the colony. At various times during the last 20 years the authorities have found it necessary to afford similar temporary employment; but, fortunately, the need for the interference of the Go rerument has in every case soon passed away, and has been succeeded by a large demand for labour in the ordinary industries of the country, and at the highest rates of wages known in any part of the world. 1 believe, sir, that hon. members will agree with me in thinking that this season of depression will also pass away, and give place to another period of prosperity not inferior to that which we have until lately enjoyed. The disorganisation of the labour market is already beginning to work its own remedy by .bringing into existence new industries in the chief centres of population, and developing the self-reliant spirit of our working classes. There is also the most encouraging indications of a revival of the goldfields industry, which may be of the greatest value tp the colony at large. In the meantime it is satisfactory to find that although many of the men thus employed by us are engaged in work to which they are unaccustomed, yet from their labour the colony has obtained a fair equivalent for the outlay. Tko sums voted by Parliament for additions to railway works in the last iesaioni excluiive of preliminary surveys for lines not yet authorised, amounted to £2,308,700. On the 31«t of March, £856,550 of this sum had been expended, with liabilities incurred amounting 30 £910,500, making a totalof £1,767,756, and leaving an unexpended balance on last year's rotes of £541,644. Recognising the neoessity for spreading the expenditure of the remaining Public Works funds over a period of at least the next three years, and believing that as some of the railway, works had been adopted in times of great prosperity, Parliament would aot disapprove, in bur changed circumitatices, of having an opportunity afforded of reconsidering them, I have not been in hast# to -press on the. construction of new works. In fact, in the Middle Island only one new section of railway has been commenced since the end of last session. Many • new^iectidris were got ready for contract, and income instances tenders were invited and received; but the grave consideration connected with the failing revenue and increased deficit from our finished railways, could not be evaded, and obliged us to defer the acceptance of some of these tenders, so that time might be £1 Jen fois re-examining the future rail* way policy. The expenditure of the votes for roads in this Island has for the most part been entrusted to the various local governing bodies. " The main roads under the charge of' the Government have been maintained, as usual, during the year. These include ■ the Great South Soad (Auckland),, TWranga, and, the TaupoNapiar roads On several other local roads a great amount of work has been done^ The road works instituted on the West Coast, between the Waingongoro and Stoney river, cressing the Waimate plains, have been carried on satisfactorily and the two sections of road will probably meet in a few days; The character of ther?c(Sintrj' is very favourable; 'no natuMl obstacles hating been met. The cross-road from Stratford to Opunake, through the bush, is also being pushed on.. -The amount expended on roads and bridges in the South Island during the past year is small, and no new works of importance have been undertaken. : Although not such a public work as is usually referred to in a statement of this kind,, I cannot refrain from mentioning thfr self-reliant and public-spirited efforts made by Mr Firth, of Matamata, to remove the snags from the river Thames at his own cost. In these days, when colonists are too much in the habit of looking at the Government for almost everything, it is refreshing to see a public work so useful to the community begun, carried on, and finished by a private person without even an application having been made to Government for aid from the funds of the colony;' :M -;i)

The expenditure upon water races does not appear to hare produced the large benefits which might naturally have been expected from it. None of the companies subsidised by the Government hare been a success, and in most the undertakings bare been abandoned. The total expenditure and liabilities upon water races on goldfields up to 31st of March amounted to £141,633. Of tbis amount £42,329 gives no return. Works which have cost £86,486 hare been handed orer to local bodies, while from those races which are comparatirely successful, ?iz., the Charleston, Nelson Creek, Waivnea, *ruA Mount Ida races, costing £512,819, the yearly return represents only about one per cent. The nnmber of men to whom these races afford the means of remunerative employment is 771, and their earnings per man average £140 a year. ■ ■ ■ ■ • ; •:- r, -■;- .<<<:_ : : ,v

Almost every month brings new discoveries of coal in some part of the colony, and it has become apparent that New Zealand is exceptionally rich in this mineral. Our most important lines of steamers are now almost wholly supplied from the coal mines of the colony, and the more extended use of native coals will effect a saving of £8500 on railways in the Middle Island for the current year, in. addition to an almost equal amount heretofore saved on those in the North Island.

[We hare been unable to find room for the whole of the Statement of tire Minister of Public Works, but on Monday will publish the remainder, and more fully disouss its contents.]

undesirable to adjourn when other work was ready to be gone on with. <

On the motion to go into Supply, Mr Barron moved an amendment requesting 'the Government to continue the payment lof subsidies to local bodies up to the end 1 of 1881.

Mr Pyke pointed out that the subsidies must be paid until the Financial Arrange ments Act had been repealed, or the five years it provided for expired. He did not think the Government could withhold the money due, or that tho House would readily repeal the act. He appealed to the Government to state their intentions on the subject. Mr McLean asked where the money to pay the subsidies was to come from ?

Major Atkinson said the motion was nota^practical one. It should have been accompanied by a resolution to double the Property Tax, for in no other way could the Government find the £300,000 required to pay the subsidies. There were no subsidies due now, and fair warning of discontinuance had been given to local bodies. Further payment of taxation must mean further taxation.

After some further discussion the motion was withdrawn, and on the motion of the Premier the House adjourned;