PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2980, 18 August 1888, Page 2

PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

, Bv the, Minister for Public Works the: Hon. Mr Mitchelson, 18th August. 1888.-

."/Mb Speaker,—As the' Question of (lie public works of itHS' 1 Colony s is becoming in comparison 'with' other questions of .lew . importance as time goes on, ancTaer I think tlmt this is as it should be;i propose to confine my, remarks on tlie 'subject this evening withiuniuck narrower limits tlian has usually been the case hitherto, : i. ~ Railways in course. 'of coustruotion !and proposed, including .additions' to" open lines.—On tho, subject of the railways in course of construction and proposed it will only: be necessary to say a very few wortis:: Tho Government is distinctly of opinion that tho present financial position 1 of the Colony does not warrant the. undertaking of any railway works , other thaii'suchas will be of an immediately, reproductive character, and wo havo therefore decided to recommend to Parliament that with : two exceptions only such, amounts should' be .'voted this year as will enable us to meat the liabilities already incurred with a small sum over for supervision and contingencies. The two exceptions are the Woodville to Palmerston railway and 1 the Otago central railway., ,On the /Woodville to Palmerston Raihvay,' - in.,, .addition to, ■ jimount ; required for existing liabilities, a|thority will . lie. asked . for 4180,000, to enablo a- contract to be let for the Pohangina' bridge;' and for tlie : Otago Central railway, in addition to existing liabilities, an authority for £35,000

will be asked for, of wliicli '£Bo,ooo. is ; . ! for the completion of tbo requisite i bridges'and . other , works'Up to and . across the Sutton stream, and the, ; balance £SOOO for tbo formation of a portion'.,Of! the; Middlemaroli section. • The completion of the VVoodville to iPa f liiietßfp& r railway is: considered by tlie ! 6'6vernmrait to be a work of the utmost. importance, and a larger ippropnatioft r w9ald.:iioff..liflißkad for , it were it not that nothing-would be ; - gained by undertaking, any further work's until th ! e Poliangiria bridge lias - been-put-in-hand. howeyer,.to'askjfor;a\oteiiext'6ession , • for 1 the* wliole^'Batywe ! - of ' the allocated, and to then put all iflp, works in hand wliioli are required if •tlie'cbmplefcion of tliid riiilway'at such time as wiU ensure their completion 'cohtemporanfcriusly the 'Pohan* gina bridge and thejtunnel pontics. It is also intended next year to afH»r a vote "for ■ tlie I 'whole balance of the loan allocation for the Otago Central : railway, bo 1 as to'enable the line up to Middlemarch to be completed within about two,years, from The total- leh&thiof railways'.ojietjed on the 81st March last was: In: the North Island, 648, miles and in the South 1 Jsland,;ll,oß miles;} itptal;l|7s7 miles. There were also at tint date 164 miles of railway in course of construction of ,\|hicli ,80 in i tlio ,\Nortli i Island and 84 in.tlio South Island,'tho total ' expenditure on railways including cost of provincial lilies and' purchase of district railways up to the 81st March last was £l4,i6G|7os,and the liabilities 'on the' olst 'ilarch} wer| ■ £261,577, making in a1ii14,728, for railways in course of construction, as a whole thoaraountvotedlastyearwas£46o,6oo of which £805)440 was expended and for this year with liabilities, ! at the end of March last amounting Iffy ~ £247i951. -Wfispropose.- to.:-ask (or rates to tbe extent of £338,900 leavufe .£82!),518 for future'appropriation.*R proceed now to detail the existing condition 1 of'each.'several i line as has usually been done in the past, it would,,l think, under the present circumstances be simply tedious that such should be done where new works are.Mproposedj and is.-no-doubt very desirable in order to enable hon members who ; ' may not 'all be acquainted with the several legalities to understand the' existing condition of things as a first stop towards realising what ; is proposed to be undertaken. When jnothing is s proposed to be done (with the two exceptions already mentioned) beyond making progress and final payments, on account of tlip works already contracted; for ! it seems 'Scarcely necessary to weary the House with a reoital of what these works consist of in each several instances besides this, too, the . interval between this and my last public works statement is so short that the scope | of the. undertakingsfon the. various railways' as there lias not materially altered. In um meantime it is no doubt however, for record purposes, that a brief summary of the condition of each railway should,be,,embodied;,, in the . Public. Works Statement' as usual. 1 hayb i therefore t . had oiie prepared which will' be attached to this statement as a supplement, and in tbo ■ . same supplement there will also be found some remarks which I would wish to bring under tbo notice of lion. . members on the subject of our railwayi gketally,' retrosi>e6tiye' an| prospective, In the case of all works other thau railways I propose to state the details in the usuil manner.

Additions to opened lines as mentioned in my statement last session.— The expenditure on additions to,opened lines lias been steadily decreasing, and the amount expended' during the year ended 31st Match last, id a further iW lustration in the!samo'dir6ction v Th® amounts for, the wero in round numbers as follows i—lßß4-85, £140,000, 1885-88, £81,000,1886-87, £BO,OOO, 1887-88, £BB,OOO. This k. exclusive of permanent way, and'ftf permanent way is . included, the amounts are for 1884-85, £183,000, 1885<'86, £ 109,000|'lte-87, £OI,OOO, 1887-88, £41,000. The item of rolling stock I bare taken into account, as the proportion of rolling stock added, was little if anything moro than equivalent to, the length of new lines opened during ' these'' years!' tfor .additions to opened .lines'.tlae'amouxifc. vpted last year was £4OOO of which £88,277 was expended, aiid: for tlio present year with liabilities at the end of March last amounting to £18,625 wo propose to ask for a vote of £G5,000. Up to about five years ago the undertakings of this character were undoubtedly Hither? lavibli.) J Noj separate account had' until that time been kept of' the work done in the shape of addition to the opened portion of the railways as distinctfromnewextension. Towards the end of 1888, however, the matter engaged the serious, tion ,of the Government, aii{t : ' Btepsm were taken to curtail expenditure of \ this class as much as possible. With that object accounts were opened* \ in the books of the Publio Works Department in order to show exactly how matters stood, and my successor in office carried the matter a step further 1 , in; 1884 by, bringing l 'down separaf fees tin) a tes, : arid takingldparate rajeSifor this class of work.,; ; By tliis mean's,,it ' was possible ; for tiie, first time to properly 4'cahseVi what was .being, expended! from,Vyear to year upon such' undertakings, and to keep a proper cbeoJf upon thorn it was not, of course, possible to countormand undertakings which had already been entered upon, hut great care was exercised to avoid any unnecessary expenditure im the future, and I can vouch for it that certainly . ,110! expenditure : oi : this" '' class.' has recently been undertaken,'which did not promise, an .immediate return for the capital, invested. - The .vote proposed .for, the present year, f in6ludes fIL the suiirof £25,000 for-' the purchase of a stock of permanent way material to be held in hand for working railway requirements. This is intendecl'io be drawn upon from time to time, as may bo necessary to provide for requisite rene'wels, aridWda&v'draw ! is made there will be a corresponding payment put of the vote for working expenses mto';a sijspemefjMi'] purchases ; will therefore be"made out of tliat fund to restore the stock of rails, thus the £25,000 will ,alwaya k represented, partly' in rails partly in money, "

.By this arrangemont two considerable the working railways kept will always liavo an assnrod Btock. of permunont wily located in the most convenient tpaupor to■ meet their requirement. 1 ", winch they can draw upon with cer- ; taintyj and without the inconvenienoe' and coat attending upon transhipments' which have often been requisite in the • post, and (2nd) that the construction stocks and votes will not bo conipli'cated and disarranged by having to provide an Indefinite quantity of permanent way at uncertain periods to meet the working railways require-

ments, ■| "\Vorktng Railways—As regards the railways tho annual report of >'he General Manager will be found to giveM details of the tariff rovenno . and expenses, and it is satisfactory to «id that tho efKciont administration !tho railways during the past eight years has by gradual improvement in the pormanent way structures, appliances, and organisation, led to a cor-' responding economy in working. The ■ total expenditure last year was less than that for any of the three preceding years, and the average cost of working per milo was the lowest that 'it lias ever been. For these results there can be no doubt that tho railway

.department deserves a great deal of credit, as they could only have : been brought about by caroful organization and patient supervision extending '■river a series of years, ...Still further improvements are expected during the current year, but it .must not be supposed that economy can be indefinitely extended, as we have already arrived lit fairly good results, ill view of tho rda tive situations of our

various lines, the character of tlia I traffic on some of tliem, and tho ' of the roquisito renewals that ican be realized by a careful study able A., which will be attached to statement, and which shows the results of the working, of the moral railway systems of tho adjoining Colonies compiled from their official ' reports. This year tho railway from Lyttelton to Selwyn will have been open twenty-one years, and on this and other of the older lines, the building of bridges and structures, and paying for new rails and sleepers, is a heavy item of expense. Return No. 8 in'annual report 011 working railways shows that the average cost of keeping the lines in order is under £7oa mile, apart from the actual rebuilding of structures, purchase of new rails and sleepers, and other now works. Tho same return'also shows that the wholo cost of maintenance, including such items, is only £l4l per mile. Further statistics compiled 011 table A. show that tho averago .jross charge por ton of traflje on the Ncyr Zealand lines is the lowest in the Australasian Colonies, being only Cs £a| This fact is duo not so much to Twmileage rates being low, as to the wlrago distance carried being shortor than in the other Colonies, in consequence of our numerous chief towns and ports, Be the cause what it may, however, the producers in this Colony must as a whole derive an advantage a3 compared with tho producers in the other Colonios from this low average rate of carriage from the place of pro- ' duction to a port; and tho consumers in tho chief towns as a whole must have a corresponding advantage, as compared with the consumers in the other Colonies. At the samo time, it has to be remembered that our railways cannot make as much net profit out of this lower averago rate as the railwayß of the other Colonies -can make out of their higher averago rate, even though they may carry tlie goods a somewhat longer distance for the rate which they get. The «™on for this.is that a largo proportion of the' cost of performing each transaction is a constant drain irres--1 pective of the distance carried, neverlUess if we are not getting so large ' aTeWmioas wo might do with higher rates, we gain a corresponding advantage in otlior ways by fostering production and industries of all kinds we must however wait the growth of population beforo we can gain any large increaso in traflic. Our railways in many cases have been carried into country districts without sufficient population, and can't pay expenses in such places until settlement and production have advanced, In addition to the information regarding railway rates supplied in the reports of the general manager on European and American railways (parliamentary papers 1)2 and D2a of this session) there has also been laid on tho table of the House this session a reprint of a very important English Parliamentary paper on the subject of railway rates in the United States of America (vido Parliamentary paper D2 Bof 1888). These documents are, I think wetoorthy of perusal by honorable rapiers, as bearing on the question I of our general railway policy. i j^joads.—Tho next subject is roads I of all classes, the length of roads and I bridges constructed and improved out I of the public works fund lust year was: i Dray roads, North Island 147 miles, i Middle Island 105 miles, total ilray I roads 252 miles. Horse roads, North j Island 285 miles, Middle Island 71 miles,; total .horspiroads 30G miles. Grand total of roads of all classes 558 . miles.. ■ 1. : Bridges.—Norm Island 19 bridges, 1,887 feet oi bridges ; Middlo Island 7 bridges, 719, feet. Tho■ total length of roads constructed ' and improved in tho Colony generally out of tho public works fund from, the commencement of the public works policy up to the 81st March last was as follows Dray; roads North Island, 8,881 miles,. Middle Island 1218 miles, ' tpMl dray roads 4j5'94 miles. Horse MR, North Island ' 2687 miles, : Ifiddle Islind 1,197 miles, total horse roads 8884 miles. Grand total lof roads of all classes, 8,478 miles., - Bridges.—North Island 680 bridges ; 49,476 feet j Middle Isljmd 161 bridges ' 88,529 feet/ Total bridge work in both Islands 791' bridges 88,105 feM. Boads North of Auckland, main roads, miscellaneous roads and; bridges, and ■grants in aid-roads, north of Anoklarld, • On roads, north of Auckland the expenditure for' the; year ending 81st Jlarch last was JGB,iBB leaving a bal.

ance then available out of the amounts provided, for this class, of works to the oxtent of only £782, of this sum £'lo is due' to counties under grants already made leaving £llO2 available for further undertakings. Tho .vote proposed for this year is £BOO leaving £482 for next year, [To be Continued],