PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8876, 9 November 1907, Page 5

PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

I RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. ROADS, BRIDGES AND TELEGRAPHIC EXTENSION. VOTES FOR CURRENT YEAR. The Hon. James McGowan, actingMinister for Public Works, delivered his Public Works Statement in the House of Representatives last evening. He stated, inter alia: — The year that I have to review has been one of marked progress. The total expenditure on all works and services borne upon the Public Works Estimates amounted to no less than £2,205,605, orjf we exclude ipecial accounts having their own ways and means and take into consideration only actual charges against the Public Works Fund the total amounted to £2,040,319, which is the largest expenditure on such works for many years past. The following table shows the expenditure as regards each class of works: —Railways—New construction, expenditure : total to 31st December, 1890. £11,975,008; Ist January, 1891 to 31st March, 1907, £7,615,905; total to 31st March, 1907, £19,591,003; year ended 31st March 1907, £919,730; additions to open lines: £2,092,002, £1,436,453; £3,528,455. £308,150; utilisation of water power, nil, £8,033, £8,033, £4,664; roads, £3,575,804; £3,961,922, £7,537,726; £347,470; public buildings, £1,776,003, £1,802,559, £3,578,562, £227,025; immigration £2,144,386, £33,195,£2,177,581, £l4353; purchase of native lands, £l,191,173, £842,421, £2,033,558,£9153; light-houses, harbour works, and harbour defences £880,095, £137,562, £1,017,657, £4,504 ; tourist and health resorts, nil, £113,520, £113.520/ £42,272: telegraph extension £600,849, £723,395, £1,324,244, £144,068; development of gold fields £5,611,101, £216,924, £778,025, £11,064; defence works (general) £429,720, £439,874, £869,594, £14,874; departmental, £349,789, £200,378, £550,167, £16,710; payment to Midland railway bond-holders, nil, £150,000, £150,000, nil; minor works and services, £300,689, £26,068, £326,757, £6,300; cost and discount of raising loans, etc., £1,021,472, £222,656, £144,128, . cr £5,174; totals. £26,898,145, £17,930,865, £44,829,010, £2,035,145. At 31st March, 1906, the available balance of ways and means for public works purposes was £492,298, and further funds were received as underßalance of £1,000,000 raised und«r Loan Act of 1905, £182,086; amount raised under similar > Act of 1906, £943,600; premiums received on sales and renewals of debentures, £15,834; transferred from revenue, £775,000; miscellaneous receipts, £1,560; making a gross total of £2,410,378. The ordinary expenditure of the year amounted to £2,040,319, and • charges and expenses in connection with financing amounted to £10,659, thus bringing the total disbursements up to £2,050,978, leaving a credit balance at the end of the year of £359,400. For the current year it is proposed to provide additional funds as unc'e.*- Balance of 1906 loan £56,400; new loan of 1907, £1,000,000; transfer from Consolidated Fund, £BOO,OOO. This will give a total available for ways and means of £2,215,800. The estimated expenditure for public works for the current year (excluding separate accounts having their own ways and means) amounts to £2,106,951, thus leaving a balance of £108,849 to be carried forward to next year. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

The late financial year was the most active as regards railway works of any year during the last quarter of a century!. On ne\y construction alone £919,730 was expended, and in addition to this the Railway Department's outlay on improvement works amounted to £426,065. The expenditure on the North Island Main Trunk railway alone during last year (including value of permanent way material issued to line) amounted to over £400,000, and for the current year a vote of £330,000 is proposed. The gap between the railheads is now only 24 miles, and over this length a coach service has been established . I confidently expect, with favourable weather, that the rails will be connected between Auckland and Wellington not later than Christmas, 1908. The total proposed appropriation for railway construction purposes (exclusive of the Waikaka Branch Railway Account) amounts to £775,000. The amount expended on additions to open lines during the year £308,150. As the North Island Main Trunk line is expected to be completed by the end of next year, it is desirable that the question of the purchase of the Wellington and Manawatu railway should again receive attention, as if it is decided to purchase in terms of the Railways Construction and Land Act, 188.1, ft will be necessary to give twelve months' notice to the Company. Such notice should therefore be given at ani early date if it is to mature before the Main Trunk line is finished. Havine given *,he matter very careful consideration, the Government has decided to at once give notice to the company of its intention to take over the railway in twelve months' time.

UTILISATION OF WATER POWER. In the Inst: favo or three Public Works Statements considerable attention has been devoted to the question of the utilisation of water power. Some valuable reports by the late Engineer-in-Chief and others have been presented to Parliament. The importance of the proposals outlined in these reports is undoubted, as is also the practicability of the majority of the schemes outlined. Whether they would all be remunerative is, however, more open to question, though I think there is not much doubt that some of them would be payable from the start. All of the schemes, unfortunately, involve very considerable expenditure, the total of the proposal" running into several millions. The Government considers that the time for embarking on these undertakings, which would amount almost to a fresh public works policy, has perhaps hardly yet .arrived. As soon, however, as the expenditure on the North Island Main Trunk railway ceases, and the demands on the Public Works Fund generally are less pressing, it would doubtless be advantageous to take

action in the matter of developing one or more of the' most promising: of the schemes outlined. In the meantime it is proposed to leave some of the water power available for actual use by private enterprise. JUDICIAL COURTHOUSES.

The expenditure under this head is not exceptionally hi avy, the chief items being new courthouses at Hamilton, Tauranga, Dannevirke, and Taihape; the acquisition of sites at Te Kuiti.. Lower Hutt, and substan • tial additions at Dargavilk, Waihi and Alexandra. The present year's vote provides for new buildings and site at Auckland, new buildings at Cambridge, Raglan, Kawhia, Te Kuiti, Tolago Bay, Waitaia, Eltham, Feilding, Masteiton, Lower Hutt, Ross, Hawke's Bay, Kaitangata and Otautau, and additions at Whangarei, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Blacks.

POLICE STATIONS. The chief expenditure last year took place in connection with new barracks at Christchurch, new stations at Helensville, Birkenhead, Avondale, Newton, Karangahake, Taumaranui, Tolago Bay, Bingsland, Addington, Gore, the purchase of properties at Wanganui, Masterton, Newtown, Collingwood, Methven, additions atßotorua, Tauranga, Waipiro, Wellington. The current year's vote provides for new stations at Kaitara, Whangarei, Eden, Terrace (Auckland), Newmarket, Ellerslie, Raglan, Kihikihi, Taupo, New Plymouth, Masterton, Carterton, Petone, Newtown, ' Richmond, Collingwood, Blackball, Dunville, Kumara, Cheviot, Kaiapoi, Methvcin, St. Andrews, Waimate, Hampden, Ranfurly, Owaka and Clinton, for additions at Auckland, Thames, Hastings, Waitotara, Kimbolton, Sheffield, Timaru, Dunedin, Roslyn and Invercargill, and for quarters at Hamilton and Nelson.

POST AND TELEGRAPH. A very considerable amount of work was carried out for the Post and Telegraph Department during the year, the expenditure .'.aving amounted to £43,860. The vote proposed for the current year provides for new offices at Kaitaia, Whangarei, Waipu, Matakohe, Kaipara Flats, Helensville, Birkenhead, Devonport, Mount Eden, Newmarket, Howick, Pukekohe, Huntly, Cambridge, Te JKauiti, Waihi, Port Awanui, Nuhaka, Wairoa, Aramoho, Ohakaire, Taihape, Ufciku, Kimbolton, Apiti, Terrace End, Foxton, Waikanai, Makuri, Featherston, Te Aro, Karame«, Greymouth, Woo'.ston, Rakaia, Geraldine, Fairlie, Waikouaiti, Ros]yn, Green Island, Balclutha, VVyndham, additions at Auckland, Rotorua, Manakau, Wereroa, Blenheim, North Duredin, Dunedin, Bluff. SCHOOLS.

The total expenditure on school buildings during last year was £195,835, of which £86,376 was debited to revenue, and £109,459 to public works fund. For the current year, in addition to the vote under the consolidated fund an appropriation of £IOO,OOO is asked for out of thepublic works fund to provide school buildings generally, and also railways for native and industrial schools, reformatories, home for defectives, Jubliee Institute for the Blind /Auckland), and school for deaf mutes; also grants for providing technical schools and training colleges, and for buildings for Victoria College and for ten secondary schools. , AGRICULTURE.

The work done under this head last year was small. Th 3 expenditure was principally in connection with buildings at the Pathological Laboratory at Wallaceville, and a residence at Hamilton for the inspector of stock, fruit fumigation shed at Wellington, an office at Balclutha, and a dairy produce grading store at the Bluff, were also erected. For the current year a vote of £3,000 is proposed to provide additional buildings at experimental farms at Ruakura and Arataki and Weraroa, accommodation for cadets at Ruakura, also some further buildings at Wallaceville. ROADS, BRIDGES, ETC.

Now to refer to the important question of roads, including bridges and other works essential to proper construction and maintenance. I may, perhaps, be pardoned for occupying a little of youc time with a few general remarks, for unquestionably roads are one of the most important factors concerned in.the settlement of new lands anft their maintenance x and improvement in districts where settlement has already taken place is also of great moment to persons concerned. It is true that the construction of railway? has rendered immense areas of land available for settlement in comparatively small holdings, which otherwise could only have been profitably occupied in large areas as stock and sheep runs. But for closer settlement, which is what should be aimed at, l'oads must be supplied, and as closer settlement involves denser population and a greater output per acre, ,- t means not only more miles of roads, but also to carry the greater traffic a better class of rojid than was necessary when the land was held in larger areas. Most of the land now available for settlement is of a more or less broken or hilly nature, which entails more circuitous roads, owing to gullies and ridges which have to be crossed or along s the sides of which the roads must be taken to obtain reasonable grades. In hilly country there is also usually more hard material to excavate and more culverts are required than on comparatively flat land. All the foregoing circumstances tend to increase the cost per acre of roading the land. In view of the great necessity for roads and their maintenance both in new and recently settled lands, it is proposed to provide as large a , sum as possible this year for their construction and maintenance. The total net expenditure for Jast year by the roads department upon road work, etc., was £415,037. The work was somewhakrestricted owing to labour being scarce, and to most of it being in places remote from supplies and civilisation, which renders the life of labourers more arduous than similar work more conveniently situated. Therefore, as other work was plentiful, it was very difficult to obtain labour for the backblocks. The workdone during thejyear was as under : Dray roads made 6'37 miles, dray roads maintained 2,722 miles, bridle roads made 512 miles, bridle roads maintained 1,891 miles, engineering surveys mado 612J miles, dray bridges built over 30 feet 17,800

! lineal feet. The average number of men employed during the'year on road works was 2,392. The appropriations proposed for the current year are l as follow: — Roads, departmental, £20,850; roads, generally, £390,238; tourist roads, £27,463; Loans to Local Bodies Account, £50,000; total, £488,551. This amount is, of course, in addition to the„ £25,000voted for the maintenance r.f roads on the Consolidated Fund estimates. TELEGRAPH EXTENSION. During the financial year £114,068 was expended on telegraph and telephone extensions. The lines under erection totalled no less than 251 miles. Telegraph offices were opened at 146 townships, while 2,070 new subscribers were added, to she telephone exchange system. The sum asked for this year is £105,000; this includes £75,110 of liabilities 'principally for material, under order. GROSS TOTAL APPROPRIATION". The Estimates include the following charges on the Public Works:— Departmental, £21,000; immigration, £10,000; purchase nf native lands, £7,000; rates on native lands £I,OOO ; contingent defence, £IO,OOO, lands improvement, £17,500. This brings the total amount of the proposed? appropriations up to £2,106,951, against £2,352,789 last year.

PUBLIC WORKS ACT. Experience has disclosed quite a number of points on which the Public Works Act requires amendment,, and the necessary bill has accordingly been prepared, but its consideration will be held over till next session.

CONCLUSION. The present rate of our Public Works expenditure is undoubtedly high, but the continued and wellestablished prosperity of the dominion fully justifies it. There are indeed many persons and some members of Parliament amongst them who would approve of even a higher rate, but if our borrowing for public works purposes is to be limited to one million pounds per annum, it is impossible to do more than we are doing. I claim that the proposals submitted to the House are of a thoroughly progressive nature, and at the same time are fair and equitable as regards their distributions. The needs of each and every part of the country have been carefully considered, and it will, I think, be conceded that an honest 1 effort has been made to apportion the funds available with even-handed justice and in the best interests of the people as a whole. ,