The Northern Advocate THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1912. ABOUT TIME.

Northern Advocate, 11 January 1912, Page 4

The Northern Advocate THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1912. ABOUT TIME.

AT last the Borough Council has turned down the white limestone metal from the Hora Hora quarry. Just as the Ward Government's retrenchment .scheme showed that a superfluous swarm of officialdom had been kept up at the public expense for many years, so the Council's decision discloses a wilful waste of revenue over a long stretch of time. For several reasons the word "waste" "is not too strong a term tc apply in this connection. Occasional small patches of good roadway,' where white limestone has withstood the traffic well, go to demonstrate that there is such a thing as enduring metal of the limestone order, but for every yard of svch lasting material on borough streets there is about half a mile of the veriest rubbish. One test of the average Hora Hora product ought to have been enough to convince any intelligent Council that it was unsuitable stuff for roading purposes, even when the proper method of first picking-up the old surface had been followed. With the evidence daily under their noses of an expensive metal lasting only a few days in dry weather before it became fine dust, and of churning into slush whenever rain occurred, our sagacious councillors have persisted for years in following the same practice, and why they have done so can only be classed among those mysteries which attach themselves to local bodies. It was decided at last night's meeting of the Council to accept an offer of 2000 yards of metal from Tiki- j ponga, on the testimony of the engineer and two councillors that the material was of splendid quality, and that it could be delivered to any part of the borough at 7s 3d per cubic yard. So that other, better, and cheaper metal than the Hora Hora dross and . refuse has been available all the time; yet the Council, with most astonishing contumacy, would go on laying down a rubbishy substance at a cost of over 10s per cubic yard, and would continue to make bad worse by frequently replenishing worn parts with more and more trashy stuff of the same kind. How much of the burgesses' hard-earned money has been flung

away in this manner it would be impossible to calculate, but it is safe to say that the aggregate amount wouid not only appal the taxpayers, 'but*.. s would even astonish the councillors who have been responsible for the wanton prodigality of other people'sM money. Probably, even at this stage, the Council has resolved on aH new order of things more by reasonß of the petering out of the Hora HoraV quarry driving the Council to it than 1 by any particular virtue of the Council's perception; but whateverjf the cause, we hope that the end of inexcusable extravagance in this direction has been reached!, and that the Council's decision presages a period of better procedure.