Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, DEC. 27, 1932. PUBLIC WORKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 25, 27 December 1932, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, DEC. 27, 1932. PUBLIC WORKS.

In accordance with a previous promise the Minister ior Public Works (lit. Hon. J. (i. Coates) has issued a statement showing the economies and re-organisa-tion effected within the Public Works Department. Since April, 1931, there has been a reduction of 41 per cent.- in the stall', but with further reorganisation contemplated this will be increased to 50 per cent. The obligation upon the Department to meet the changed conditions became very apparent two or more years ago. In 1930-31 there was an expenditure of eight million pounds upon Public Works, and for the current year the sum voted is considerably less than half this amount. An elaborate Department, mainly built up with the loan money it was charged to expend in the development of the Dominion, has been shorn of much of its former proportions, with considerable saving to the general public. In the administrative costs there has been a reduction of £200,000 since 1930-31. Mr Coates makes an interesting comparison between the Department of 1919,-20 and to-day. Then • the staff numbered 732 and the gross expenditure was £1,612,000; to-day, there -are 702 on the staff and the estimated expenditure on all votes for this year is £3,461,000. The revenue collected in the prior year was £51,600 as against an estimate of £830,000 in 1932-33. In the meantime, the Department has taken over the maintenance and operation of the hydro-elec-trical installations and the irrigation schemes, and the greater revenue is derived from the operation of the former. Mr Coates -also contrasts an expenditure of 89 per cent, of loan moneys compared with the whole in 1919-20 with an estimate of 59 per cent, expenditure of loan moneys this year, the balance being highways and other revenue moneys. He also puts forward the contention that the many and varied activities of the Department make impossible a reduction in administrative costs beyond a certain point. There is, however, an obligation upon the Department to prove the necessity, especially in these times, of many of these activities. The National Expenditure Commission, in their report, had “no hesitation in sayng that a reducton in the size and cost of the Department was long overdue.” The taxpayer will not be satisfied with anything less than the maximum of achievement.

The report of the Commission dealt severely with the growth of expenditure from loan moneys by the Department. In 1931 the sum per head of the population was £5 7s 6d, whereas between 1878 and 1921 it was usually less than £2 and only twice exceeded £3. “If any regard is to be had to the credit of the Dominion, it is obvious this rate of expenditure cannot be continued,” the Commission stated, in pointing out that loan money had been too easily obtained in good times, and the lessons now being learned should not be forgotten when the tide of prosperity returned. A forceful recommendation was that the Department should return to the contract system, and it has been given general support throughout the country. Mr Coates says that the general policy in

the future will be for Public Works, as far as is practicable, to be carried out on this system. At the same time, he points to the Department’s experience in the past when it has been compelled to complete private contracts, but this, notwithstanding, adoption of the contract system will enable the Department to bring estimates and actual costs closer together. The alarming difference between the two in many, big undertakings carried out by the Department hap been a subject of comment in recent years. To bridge them is eminently desirable and imperative in the Dominion’s interests. It will be recalled that the Commission suggested that the Department should be reduced to a staff of advising and inspecting engineers as was intended when it was first organised, and that an independent Board of Public Works should be established. On the former point it is obvious from Mr Coates’s statement that such a drastic reduction is not contemplated, but on the latter he is silent. Taxpayers will be sharply disappointed, for the adoption of such a policy is of outstanding importance in that it means the divorce of Public Works from political influence.