AVONDALE ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 205, 27 August 1912, Page 8

AVONDALE ROADS.

(To tbe _dltor.) Sir,—For one not wishing to give publicity to the apathy of the Avondale Road Board, as regards Manukau Road, jMr Adams has made a very good ati tempt to do so. I do not think that Ihe could have made a much harsher statement (which was quite uncalled for) than he did at the meeting of the Oth, and I, as a member of the Board, I had very good reason to use his name, land, as I stated before, there were no ! suggestions forthcoming to overcome, the j difficulty which had arisen. A suggestion made three months ago was of no use at the present time, as it was impossible to get horses on the ground he indicates. The contractors stuck to tinwork as long as they 'could work horses, and had they got another fortnight's fine weather they would have had a permanent footpath constructed on Burton's Hill. Money spent on a temporary footpath would have been thrown away, and Mr Adams would have been one of the first to accuse the Board of wasting ratepayers' money. In reply to Mr Pendlebury, I wish to state that at a meeting of the Avondale Road Board held on 7th August Mr Pendlebury stated that the £00 spent on Taylor Street was money thrown away, and ratepayers' money was being wasted. I challenged Mr Pendlebury through your columns to prove his state- ' nients, with the result that he cannot ido it. At the last meeting of the AvonI dale Road Board Mr Pendlebury again i wished to speak, but the chairman very j rightly refused to hear him until he apologised to the Board for his rash statements. —I am, etc., I D. CAMPBELL. (To the Editor.) —At the meeting when a number lof the ratepayers of Avondale South bearded the Rond Board in its den, the chairman exonerated the contractor, deI fended the Board, and expounded the Jmof contracts in its relation to meteorology. He made rather heavy weather of it in all three directions. His vindication of the Board was evidently con- . sidered unsatisfactory by his follow members, one of whom, on their behalf, Mr. I). Campbell, has rushed to his as- ' sistanee, in your columns, against Mr. ; Pendlebcrry's deadly onslaught. Mr. ' Campbell has, however, only succeeded in making matters worse. The chair-] 1 man's views, on the law of contracts j ' were more ingenious than sound, and 1 ,' understand that at the last meeting ■: of the Board he blamed the contractor I for everything of which the ratepayers ! complained. This was neither reasoni able nor just. No doubt if the con- ' ! tractor had remembered that what ! takes ten men fifty days to accomplish, . fifty men can do in ten days, things would not be quite so bad as they have ' been and are now. But we all admit ' . that the contractor had exceptionally I bad weather to contend against. Those ! persons who care now to inspect the , I Manukau Road will at once see that it _, lis impossible to justly blame the cojj- ? tractor for everything. When the Board , j found that the road, even after the original plan had been modified, would cost more than the amount of the loan sanctioned, it was manifestly its duty to at once lay the whole position again before the ratepayers. That the Board did not do so is not the fault of the contractor. The road now is not being formed for its full width; that is not the fault of the contractor. In some . parts a considcraible amount of unneces- ',' i sary grading has been done; that is not *' the fault of the contractor. In other I pants the grading is insufficient; that is , not the fault of the contractor- The a I road is being metalled for a width of _ I only twelve feet, not giving room for I I one vehicle to pass another; that is not ■the fault of the contractor. The foote path is a strip of scoria, so narrow that, r as I informed -the Board art its meet- _[ ing, there is not width for two people to walk abreast; that, also, is not the X fault of the contractor. Mr. Campbell, _• for whom I votedwoe is me!—resents a our complaints, abuses us for not makI ing suggestions, and hints at saddling us .. with increased rates if we continue „ troublesome, when nearly £500 out of I* the ordinary revenue has already been c spent on another road, in addition to ,(_ the loan money allocated to it, and not ,f a word about increased rates in that con(j nection has yet been uttered. As for j. suggestions, I have never yet 'heard of n any road board, under similar circum- : . stances, humiliating itself by asking, in * helpless, hopeless ineptitude, for suggesd tions as to how it was to do its duty. r We simply want our roads. At pre- , r sent we 'have only a dreary ditch of v- sickening slush, and if, and when, it is i completed on its present lines, we shall, is after all, not have a road, but a botch ,- —an awful botch. 'Mt. Campbell d» charges us with injuring our district by c voicing our grievances, That is the unn kindest cut of all, and a moment's rei- flection ought to have -told Mr. Camp- .- bell that the charge thus made is absurd, c If any harm has resulted at all, it has •t* been caused, not by our complaints, but if by the roads being such as they really *.- are. This time last year we had a very »- fair road out here. At present we have a, none. The Board gave; the Board hath — taken away; cursed toe the name of the Board!—l am, etc, AVONDALE SOUTH.