THE GREY VALLEY ROAD BOARD.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1900, 8 September 1874, Page 2

THE GREY VALLEY ROAD BOARD.

[to the editor.] Sir — The palpable mismanagement of our local affairs that has existed for some time past, is a fact of general notoriety in tha district, and I should not have written this letter had not my attention been called to the latest instance, "charitably speaking," of the irregular escentric, and inconsistent conduct of the Road Board, and I now beg that, in the interests of justice and f airplay, you will allow this communication a place in your columns. The grievance I speak of, is that the Board have given to the contractor of Section No. 4 of the main road maintenance the sum of L 25 for placing a 32-inch diameter culvert across the road, which they choose to call an extra, but what makes the affair more glaring is that the work, at the highest valuation/ is not worth L 5. Now, independent of the conditions specified (appended), there are no such things as extras to be paid for in any maintenance contract, unless^ specially mentioned in the specifications,, which is not done in this case, and no reserve fund is required for any damage done to the- road from any cause whatever, for after the contractor has signed his agreement to maintain the road at his own expense, only has it to be made good ; and any money paid away by the Board for repairs of any kind, beyond the price already contracted for, is alike a& injustice to, the ratepayers and the other tenderers. This unauthorised, unwarrented, and unsuccessful squandering of public money by the Board cannot be too severely condemned by all upholders j of fairplay, and is deserving of the strongest reprobation arid censure ; more especially so as other tenderers offered in the most explicit terms to maintain the road in good working order, open for traffic at all times, and to make good all dam;<ge done to the road from any cause whatever, for a stipulated sum ; but the amount stipulated for by the present contractors, if this proceeding of the Board is allowed to pass unchallenged, would at the end of twelve months be only a fractional part of the ultimate cost of maintenance, and the lowest tenders prove to be the highest, a process of management that must not be tolerated by the public unless they wish to bring upon themselves a prematurely heavy rate. And look at the road now ; why it is in a worae condition than it was on the 29th of June, the day the tenders were opened. For three miles to my knowledge in places it is axle deep, and most of the distance has even had the water let off the road. I would advise the Board to see that the ruts are filled in, the approaqh.es to bridges and culverts made safe, aud the road made passable before they go into what they call extras, and when they do so I would refer them to clauses 5, 6, and ' 7 in the conditions of the specification. Because the Board find out now that the 1 sum of £1128 .is not. sufficient for the ] work, as specified to be executed. That is 1 no ; excuse for their conduct } they knew <

the road was in a threadbare condition, . and badly required a new coat of metal, and I suppose made clause 9 a part of the conditions for the purpose of drawing the attention of tenderers to that fact; accordingly tenders were sent in to meet that clause. One was a clearly expressed - offer to metal the road from end to end, and the full width, with Bin of clean gravel, and maintain the 'same in an effective state for 12 months for a sum under L2OOO. The other tender offered to metal the road from end to end, full width, with 6iu of gravel, maintenance the same, for a sum considerably under L2OOO, and was prepared to do the metalling within three months. The frivolous excuse the Board make that the irregular payment of the Provincial subsidy has interfered with the progress of the work is a subterfuge too shallow to be concealed in the face of the L 25 extra. All the tenderers were well .enough aware at the time of tendering of the beggarly state of the Provincial Treasury. Can the Board, with any show of reason, justify their conduct in not availingtnemselves. to : the uttermost of the L2OOO Mr O'Conor promised should be handed over to them, for the express purpose of maintaining, the constructed parts of the main road through this district not one penny of which, he .distinctly stated, should >>bey diverted from that work to benefit 'any; other part of the district;. It appears: to me, that through the Boards, culpable conduct in the management of this matter, that the district has lost the sum of L 872, " the difference of the price of the present, contracts and the money promised," unless they have intended to utilise the balatice in the shape of extras, &c! : . They 'want funds, but decline to strike a rate. They are offered L2OOO for a certain purpose, and modestly accept L 112 8: wonderful prodigies that they are. There .can be no doubt that the Board ought to have properly utilised the Provincial Secretary's pledge, and their attention to the fact was drawn by a letter from one of the tenderers, which received little notice at their hands. Referring j back' to the } 29th, of June, I am at a loss toi conceive what benefit Mr Alcorh 'foresaw would accrue from his proposal at the eleventh hour, and just- before: the tenders were opened, to do away with rtheiv; sureties clause, and voluntarily relinquish the strongest power the Board possessed of compelling the contractors to faithfully fulfil their contracts. This appears" a most mysterious affair— that L2OO was an unreasonable amount, for the accepted tenderers of each, or of ;all>of the sections to find, is but too apparent, for the General and Provincial: Governments only require 10 per , cent on the amount of tender, but doing away with' it altogether, and that in five minutes before the tenders were opened is, to my mind an inexplicable act of inconsistency that will not bear proper explanationj for if the surety waa not [necessary why ape- :^ cify that it was so, and put the tenderers to the trouble and possible expense of ' procuring it? I take it that when once < the tenders are received,. it is incompe- •'■" tent on the part of the Board . to strike out or alter so importaut a condition, and indoingso the Board exceeded theirfunc?;. tions and the just limits of their pbyreri^ The whole thing was illegal, and fresh tenders should have been-called for without the sureties. .The Chairman, I am told, obstinately rrefusedHo sign the covenant that is necessary, to make the agreement between the contracting;par---ties a valid one.- His conduct i 3 not in); ' explicable in this matter.-If he wasafraidv" to accept the responsibility the proper carrying out of the duties of Chairman entails on him, he should have resigned?at once, and make room for a more willingsuccessor to fulfil the duties of the^post. ■No man has a righK-to^retain a public office when by doin^ao^he retards the interests of the people-rrthe refusing to sign that document deprives the overseer :of any power to enf orse a proper f ulfiln 'mentof the specifications on the part of the "nominal" contractors; and whilst they are receiving the stipulated pay of 75 percent of one-twelfth of the amount' tendered, say some L 75 per month, they can and do just what they t like, and laugh at any interference on the part of the Board, and I take it that the only thing the Board could do in the matter, was for the Chairman to sign the agreed ment, or discharge the contrators, as per clausej and in conditions of specification. The Board has so often threatened to resign that the people are getting used to it, and have, in a great measure, lo3t the dread of losing their valuable services ; but it is to be hoped that before they really do so, that they : will give us some account ri qf their stewardship; and .allow^us a chance of showing pur gratitude; : -a* one . of?th« members considered we ought to do, for the benefits we "may" have received' from their " arduous, disinterested, untiring, and satisfactory " services. Instead of the legal adviser that one of the Board, in an inspired moment, suggested should be retained, I think the time has arrived when the employment of au able auditor might possibly be of more service : . to. the district. Solicitors, I have no doubt,* are very useful gentlemen in their way,but,*l have yet to learn that . they know more about road making than the ordinary run of mortals, and I don't think their learning extends to drawing up road specifications ; but the auditor would be of. some real use, if he were an efficient one, for in his report he could tell the public when and where the labor had been employed, for which hundreds have ?been already expended,- and for which;.:,'*! suppose^" the district has incurred such large liabilities, "L 556 up to the end of March last ; he could tell the ratepayers the exact locality aud every place where work bad been done, . and money expended by the Board, so ithat then the. people ascertain whether the report was correct, and judge for themselves whether the funds were being judiciously laid out, and have some data upon which to form an idea- as to low the money was being expended; "and this is the more necessary as some time ago the Board passed a resolution that all the, work should be done by contract where it was possible. And ..where, I should like to know, has all this contract work been performed that has edsf so much ?I, for one, must : say that I have neither heard of it nor know where to find itj: nor:,are there any works visible, " to my knowledge," that wilLaccount for such a sum, nor will the first payment to the main road contractors, which jbecame due at the.;end of last month, account for the large liabilities the Board are " nominally" responsible; for, but for which the people are so in reality. The time has arrived for the people to assemble and discuss the question, to at once oast off

the listless apathy that has so long characterised the district in public matters, to check the present reckless and uncalled for expenditure, and devise some means of remedying the present intolerably unsatisfactory state of our local affairs, and the sooner this is done the better for the district. Apologising for the great length of this letter, I am, &c, Obsbbvbr. Totara Flat, August 27, 1874. Subjoined are extracts from the conditions of contract contained in the specifi- ' cation on which tenders were called for road maintenance : — Clause 4. The successful tenderers to find sufficient sureties, to be bound in the sum of LIOO each, for the faithful execution of carrying out the terms of the contract. Clause 5. All bridges culverts, watertables, and embankments to be kept in a perfect state of repair. Clause 6. All works executed under the direct supervision and control of the Overseer of Works to the Board, who can, at any time, at the expense of the contractor, or his sureties, make, alter, or carry out such works as he shall deem requisite. Clause 7. Any new fords that might arise, either through floods or otherwise, at any creek, or river, or elsewhere, the approaches to such fords to be made and constructed by the contractor. Clause 9. In any case where the Overseer shall point out that repairs are necessary, there shall not be less than from 6in to Bin of metal deposited, but the whole road will have to be metalled, and the thickness of the metal to be deposited shall be as the Overseer of Works may direct, to the width of the load already constructed.