WAIMEA CREEK BRIDGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1937, Page 5

WAIMEA CREEK BRIDGE

••'/J- . [to THE EDITOR.] . Sir—l noticed in your issue dated 11/3/37, a reply’to my letter of 8/3/37. presumably written by and signed, G. Spark. This man, before answering a letter "in future, should read th* correspondence .more carefully, as no - doubt lany person who had done so would i not have replied through your paper, quoting such a> misleading statement aq he, because in the letter dated "8/3/37,” ho mention was made of a couple tff months- before ‘ the bridge would,, have .to he dismantled,. but I rhadl in my paper where it would only be -a matter of months, etc. He also StP.te.fi.. that- the workers themselves have to keep the road in order byi Working on ‘it oUtdide "of' working hoprs. ■lt is not'.so many months ago I since, the Grey County Council had a •lorry and a number of men grav’elling and repairing'the road for quite a considerable time, and I know it vzould faired idt of hard'"work, keeping this road;from the creek to the huts in order,, when it is continually used by the l di'6flge''Yi i act.or" ail'd we all know "the destruction a tractor. can do to a road. Mr. Spark is making a mistake when lie :sta£es‘"'tlmf 'the men would have to waik'Xwb^miles each-way to. and- from fw.ork if .the’-huts wore erected, on the Maoii'feully'bhat] whereas (he distance iiUffifty'-" chains by--following the/el’eek and .considerably less on the road, so T fail to ’see where his argument is sound; I also, hope-he' is not- worrying unduly about my. being vindictive, to-j wards "the directors, as I presume, that they are the people, to whom he is al- 1 lyding.-A ? s to the erection of (he bridge; not affecting my pocket.it would lead people to believe that the -employees atft having this, bricige. erected at their own expense. As for-kicking the, direc-, tors '-bdhihd their backs, 1 am 'sure thei'e is, not one dirocto? can truthfully say that I have ever gone behind their hacks to express my opinions of them, or the dredge.. When you. say your cars are tampered . with when left a mile from your dwelling it casts I’ather a suspicion oil the few dwellers of Maori Gully, apart, from the fact ihal there are six car owners working on the dredge. Referring to my hot having a car, I have always maintained that a horse is more reliable than a'car, as a horse seems to stick more to the road, especially at night. Not signing my name to the previous letter -must have’ caused you a lot’of W.orry. We all know when corresponding through a paper that a name is neither here nor there, only in some cases where a true signature is applied to the bottom of a letter, that that person is riot writing"for any benefit to anyone, only the .writer. Regarding the small talk, you know there is nothing snialltfri'than Childish poems. Considering the short period in which Mr. .Spark has been employed as a dredge hrifid 1 at Maori Gully, it would have ,bhen..bettei\.if heXwould have let an older hand carry the banner, as there is no ‘doubt they would have a more qec.nratevidea .of. tpe enormous expense of the erection and the re-erection of these huts. For the benefit of readers paper, I will endeavour to ac-quaint-them of ti few facts to show how it would iiave been a benefit and -to the- shareholders of some of .their capital,if these huts had been 'erected tW'The start of "operations on the Maori Gully Flat.'The total length of the dredging area., js three mijes, From Maori Gully end of the area there is a pack track running parallel with the creek; this track enables’the ’ workers to proceed to and from’'work. I have walked this distance in seven minutes.,. The employees are now walking back a distance of roughly 20 chain and as each day makes the distance - further still, it ’would benefit the men if the huts 'were greeted on site mentioned in-my previous letter. In the .first place,'these lints were erected on the southern boarida'ry l bf ;tlie’ area ; "after proceeding one and a-half miles up the creek, these huts were dismantled and trans-’portc-d a" distance of four miles by tram to the main road, five and threequarter miles by lorry and re-erected .within a mile of the old hut site. The transportation of these huts must htrv e used up an. enormous amount of ’money. It was a ridiculous move on the part of the directors, and now it seems rather a farce to think that after one and three-quarter years the directors have just awoke to the fact that a bridge is required, when the ford has been crossed and the road used countless numbers of times dur-, ing that time, and then they wonder whv I complain of the wilful waste of shareholders’ capital. In concludng, 1 wish’Jto state that 1 desire to have po further c.qj.’respondence with the dredge’iia nds. As riiy argument is \vriU the directors and.-has nothing whatever to do with the employees, and it' seems rather a shame that they take up such a vindictive attitude.—Yours, otc. — , .'.U COSTIGAN.