THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, May 1, 1857. LUCEO NON URO.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1027, 1 May 1857, Page 3

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, May 1, 1857. LUCEO NON URO.

"If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A. thousand beacons from the spark I bott-" When the present Government assumed the direction of our Provincial affairs, we took the first opportunity of intimating that there was no desire to throw difficulties in their way, or to offer any hindrance to the efficient performance of the public business. Knowing the men of whom it is composed, it is of course unlikely that we should have felt the slightest confidence in them, either in regard to ability, or integrity of purpose : but we clearly perceived, forecasting to the future, the necessity of making it apparent to the whole province that if they failed, the failure should be attributable to themselves alone. Nor did we restrict ourselves to a merely negative position; we went further still, and advised them, again and again, to the best of our know-, ledge and ability. We shewed. them how to avoid the Provincial "Dead-Lock"; we shewed them bow they might have popularized their education bill, now viewed with a steadily increasing mistrust; we informed them of the grave suspicions which attached to the Superintendent's Office in regard to contracts for public works— to acceptance of tenders and alleged unfair alterations of specifications, while at the same time we made an opening for them to come forward and clear themselves, if able to do so; we also afforded them the opportunity, of which they declined to avail themselves, of setting at rest some very awkward rumours concerning the means which they have adopted to damage their predecessors in regard to the building of Government House—of shewing, if they could, that if wanting in ability they were at least not wanting in good faith. We have given them the best advice we could throughout: there is no denying this, for every one knows it, and all who are not enchained by party ties admit it. If they have declined to profit by the advice, we cannot help it Possibly they may mistrust the quarter from whence it comes— timent Danaos et dona ferentes ; or it might be, perhaps, that we have unintentionally taken a course which might ultimately appear to be the most insiduous which could have been adopted—that of recommending what was right in order to raise in them a spirit of opposition, and so to hinder them from performing it. It has been well observed—and the case is parallel, that there are some who are of so suspicious a nature, that the surest mode of deceiving them is to tell them the exact truth, they being certain to believe the contrary. We shall still continue, however, to offer them the best suggestions we are- able, (regardless of the construction that may be affixed,) as they may 1 .happen to occur to us. For instance, if they he disposed to afford useful information, they might supply, with a good grace, some returns that would have been moved for in the Provincial Council, had not the public business been prematurely, stopped by the Superintendent's issue of anew writ for the Suburbs. Let us take for example, the following, which ■was to have been moved by the member for the Bay.of Islands;-^.

"Mr, CAR_BfON to move for the Plans T»nd Sections of the Main Sewer proposed by the Board of Works, shewing the height of each of the ground floors of all the houses in Queen-street, the manner in which each property would be affected-that is the height which the road-way when completed would be above or below the level of each tenement; the nature and quantity of work which it would be necessary for private individuals to execute before each of the properties in Queen-street could be drained h_ the Sewer, and the probable cost. "Also for the Tabular Statement of the Board of Works, shewing the inclinations of the Longitudinal Sections of the Sewer, the lengths of Longitudinal Sections for each inclination, the discharge in cubic feet per minute for each, the available area on the Cross Section of each, the quantity of filling, the quantity of masonry, the estimated cost for each Longitudinal Section, and for the whole. "Also,—for the like Plans and Sections, and for a corresponding Tabular Statement, similar in every respect, and conveying the same full information, as regards the Sewer commenced by the late City Surveyor. that the documents asked for contain with msozn to the Sewer proposed by the Board of Wovkc; such Plans, Sections, and Statements appertaining to each tftwur, being compiled exclusively from the data on which the respective Sewers were designed."

The following, which was likewise to have been moved for, might still be given, to the great enlightenment of the public.

"A Return shew'.ng the errors (amounting in number to nearly fifty) in the levels of the principal streets in Auckland, as exhibited on the sections which were handed over to the Board of Works by the late City Surveyor."

Sttch a return was prepared by ihe Board of Works in 1856, and is at present a record in the office of the Provincial Engineer. We may observe that the errors which this paper records are not such as have been discovered by comparing the City Council's levels with those of the Board of Works, but by comparing the levels of the City Council with each other. For instance, it is shewn on these that measuring aloug Hobsonstreet to its junction with West Queen-street, the; height above high water mark is 64 and 2 l-100th feet, but measuring along West Queen*street the same point is only 54 and 25-100tbs above the same mark, making t l =e crossing 9 and 96-100ths feet higher by one measurement than by the other. Both of these levels cannot le right. If the true height be 54 and 25 100 th then every point on the West Queen street section must be wrong, or if the height be 64 and 21-100ih, every point on the Hobson-street section must be wrong. The junction of Shortland-street and Barrack-street is shewn as 7 and 82-100ths higher measuring along Shortland-street, than along Bank-street. In Syroonds-st eet and Bank-street there is a difference of 9 feet, in Beresford-street of nearly 8 feet, and the junction of Grey-street with Queemstreet is represented as being 4 feet higher if measured along Queen-street, than it is if measured along Grey-street, and so on with almost every other crossing in the City This return, if produced, would shew decisively that the works designed by the late City Surveyor (or Council) were erroneous in principle and impossible in practice j that a street which would be made according to one eet of levels, could not be adapted to another street made according to the counterpart of the same set of levels. That their works, had they been finished, must have been altered after construction; and that a citizen who built an expensive permanent structure according to their plans had not only no security whatever that it would not be necessary to raise or lower it five or ten feet before the lapse of half as many years, but, on the contrary, might feel assured that it would be necessary so to do.

The Return in question only notices the 40 or 50 errors at the crossing of streets because those are the most important. Every discrepancy at a crossing shews that there must be mistakes in the measurements of some of the adjoining street?— perhaps in all of them; and it commonly happen? that an error at a crossing when traced back is found to resolve itself into a great many minor ones, originating a long distance from the point of detection. We believe that the City Council levels shew that there is scarcely a crossing in the city free from discrepancies of greater or less magnitude, and that there is scarcely a street in the town designed by the City Cou:;c:l w-!;ioh <br.v r.->i stand its chance of bein» _r._:.-.- ■■■.1 .» iaveied before it can be adapted to the crossing of a neighbouring street. As the late City Surveyor has now charge of all the works in the Province, —as be will he entrusted with the carrying out of those to be yet proposed, it would be only a matter of common prudence to examine into what he has done heretofore, in order to form some opinion of what may be expected from him during his remaining term of office.

If it be said that the levels were given by the General Government and that therefore the errors are attributable to them, the answer is simple,— namely, that the levels were not taken by the Surveyor General, were not checked by him, signed by him, or guaranteed by him, but only .transferred for what they were worth. If the Surveyor General had been called upon to carry the work out, he would at once have detected the inaccuracy of the data. The City Surveyor had them in his keeping for months; the Council no doubt, adopted them at his recommendation; and what is more he worked to them for many months apparently without knowing that they were wrong, and even without suspecting them ; whereas a competeut Engineer could not have entertained them for a moment. The Board of Works on a cursory view, before they were appointed, detected these discrepancies, and immediately on their assumption of office pointed them out ; when it was found necessary to treat the old survey as a nullity, and to undertake a new one. And this new survey, as we are informed, has been approved by the present Provincial Government, who know the old one to be wrong. How was it that the City Surveyor remained so long unaware of its worthlessness ?

If it be said that the termination of the levels of one street did not exactly coincide with the terminations of another, it can again be answered that this admission only makes the matter worse; for if the City Surveyor knew this be had no excuse for not noticing and correcting it. He was like the tyro mechanist who attempted to construct a time-piece from the various wood cuts in an old magazine: he fashioned every separate part of the instrument according to the pictures in it, and found, on attempting to join them, that one part was that of a clock whilst another was that of a Geneva watch, that one wis intended fora 'Lever,' another for a •Repeater ; and so with all the rest. However t nearly the several parts assimilated to what they should be, yet no ingenuity could connect them, or make them useful as a whole; . Just in this way did the late City Surveyor arrange all his streets. He made them precisely like the streets in his boi»k3. without once considering whether they could be connected together so as to make a town. His section of Hobsonstreet may be complete in itself, and so may his section of West Queen-street; but if he carried them both out according to his original design, a cart coming down Hobson-street must drop ten feet perpendicularly into West Queen-.«tri'et, or if in West Queen-street it must ).; lUt ;y.\\\? vertical height; before geitiny into rl.-.ij.vwi-rjij>;c;; whilst the corner bouse would have the H>or of its. cellar flush with the one street, and its first

story on a level with the other. The designs of the City Surveyor are those of a novice—meie disjointed attempts, whereas they should be those of a master, —complete in all their parts, and perfect as a whole. The present Government have raised a cry against the late lWd of Works. Now, if they have a mind to open dealing—if they did not raise the cry for electioneering purposes only, let them supply the information requested. For. independently of its value to the public, it will have the effect of silencing that cry, at once .and for ever. In regard to the formation of that Board, the late Government could have done no moro than they did. They made the most of the means at their disposal. In appointing to it Messrs. Mason, Simpsm, and O'Rafferty, they indisputably appointed three of the best engineers the Province could supply. We have no desire I t-draw invidious comparisons, but content ourselves with observing that if the officer who now performs the duties of the Board of Works be able to supply a clear and workmanlike statement in answer to the foregoing requests for information, —a statement that would pass muster before professional men, we shall give him credit for a more intimate knowledge of his profession than he is generally supposed to have attained.