ENGINEERING AND THE COUNTY ESTIMATES.

Clutha Leader, Volume VII, Issue 359, 27 August 1880, Page 5

ENGINEERING AND THE COUNTY ESTIMATES.

TO THE EDITOR. O wad the Power some giffcie gie us, To see oorselves as others see us. Sir,. •— If your correspondent signed " Inch Clutha" had remembered the above lines before writing the letter which appeared in your last issue, he would have been more careful in his statements. It is very strange to me.to see such a letter from the Island at all, when in another part of the same paper; we find application is to be made to the County Council by the Road Board to have all the rates, collected on the Island with subsidy thereon, together with the sum of L 250 paid over to the Board, as the Board have taken

\ charge of the only County road~on~'th» Island. From this it will be .seen that--1 the hitherto- over-worked and ' underpaid . County Engineer has nothing to do on Island, at all ;. the Road Board does .the* work as it sftould do- "without his assistance. Does " Inch Clutha * know hotf" , many jobs this officer has had to' lay" out and inspect this year. I think not. ; " ! ' ' . Let us go through- the,- estimates-'' of assets and expenditure for the yeab 1 ending 31st March, 1881, just to- sec if this is'iu- : mere .temporary lull with, road' works*:The assets begin with— Rates— Arrears,, 1878-79, Lll9 2s 6d, worth, about 5s ins. the- pound - r Arrears, 1879-80,. L 222' i4srj. perhaps worth 10s in the pound ; rates., 1880 at 6d in the pound— L 1399. ' Subsidy (when they get it) L3OOO ;; Landrevettue, LBoo', also slopped ; Dbferred-pay— : ment roada) L46o— right ; Gbldfielda-re--venue, L2 loa ; Licenses, L 26 0; Dog Tax,*. Ll5O ;, Miscellaneous, Xsl — Total' L 640&: 6s Gd. Now for ; expenditure. It begins*, with — Bank overdraft, Ist April, *188tfj L 92; Contracts on hand, LB64''9s 7d/; Votes to Boards, Ll3O ; Conditional Votes, LlB6 ; Surface labour; L7ST) j Salaries, LG9S (whatever else must go they 5 must not be omittod) ; Miscellaneous, L 150*;," Balance to credit, L 3540 16s 11. 'Now as* . the subsidies and land revenue are stopped we must deduct about L 3900 from.'the credit balance, and then how do we look:!'. I The session. of Parliament is nearly closed, yet all we have got in exchange for,subsidies is unlimited rating powers',, and? some vague theory of rating, Crown lands, which won't bring in nuicht But never mind ; there are good times coming, ana we'll go in for a two or three shilling rate.. to make up the deficiency. , ' . After this, will anyone say it is notHigh> time for unsparing retren chment f If .he does not think so, let him please to tell'ipK where the money is to come from.. Themis Mr Clark, who a short time ago went in so strongly for economy but without much success 1 Let him try again by ajl means. How did Mr Mosley propose 'to manage with a threepenny rate 1 Why, it would not have paid*, the salaries, afc pro*sent given. ,' : < Th-jre is a very curious notice in your last issue. I allude to the Clerk's advertisement stating that the County offices will bo open for despatch of business iarx ' Tuesday and Friday from 10 till 4. So> long as the gentleman in question ., was getting L 95 a-year he kept the office 'open every day, but now when be gete only LI 10 he can afford to keep it open but' tiro* days a- week. Really it seems the mpre rapublic servant gets the less he is- expectSdT to do. — lam, &c., r Glenomabu.l