RAILWAY EXTRAVAGANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1567, 20 December 1865, Page 3

RAILWAY EXTRAVAGANCE.

TO TIIK EDITOR OP TUB LYTTELTON TIMES. Sir, —Can you inform the public what is the meaning of that extraordinary paragraph in Mr. Dobson's report on the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway, in which he states that the foundations of the Opawa viaduct have been injured by the scouring of the river-bed, and recommends that it should be replaced by an iron girder bridge ? To those who are acquainted with the natureof the river Heathcote,where it is spanned by this "viaduct," there is something extremely amusing in the idea of its having baffled the skill of the engineer to drive piles which shall withstand its scour ! It is also somewhat puzzling to an ordinary mind to be told that this great engineering difficulty is to be overcome by using iron girders, which, I take it, have nothing to do with the foundations of a bridge. It is to be hoped that, in the present state of financial matters, we are not going to be led into reckless extravagance through the rivalry of the engineers of different lines of railway. As we are now p lying a thousand pounds per annum and travelling expenses to a Provincial Engineer, who is to do nothing but make designs, it behoves us to keep a sharp look-out as to the cost of realising these designs. Youri, &c., PROVINCIAL SHAREHOLDER.