The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 29, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 175, 29 July 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 29, 1867.

Yekt great inconvenience has hitherto been experienced from the want of a bridge over the Wai-iti river, at Foxhill, where it crosses the main trunk of road through the province, and for years past efforts have been made with a view to supply this deficiency. A sum of money has been twice placed upon the Estimates, but there the matter had rested, until, acting on a suggestion contained in the Report of the Select Committee appointed to consider and report upon the site for the new Waimea bridge, Mr Henry Redwood, on the second reading of the Appropriation Bill, proposed that the sum pf £1000 should be voted for the construction of a cartbridge over tbe Wai-iti, instead of the original sum proposed — £275 for the construction of footbridges over that river — which was accordingly assented to by the Council. In the meantime the residents iu the neighborhood had been compelled to wade to and fro through the water, or perform perilous gymnastic exercises in walking across round poles, pieces of scantling, trunks of trees, slabs, etc., that any resident who had more urgent reason to cross, or more enterprise than his neighbors, might place together in order to enable him to make the transit dry- footed. Of course the first rise in the liver carried away this apparatus bodily, and when the waters subsided, a fresh place had to be selected, fresh trees or poles drawn across, or fresh scantlings fixed to replace their luckless predecessors. Not only residents aud neighbors were inconvenienced, but the through traffic of the province between Nelson and Canterbury, the Wairau, the settled districts of Motueka Valley and tbe gold-fields, was interrupted, and a general complaint was very prevalent to the effect that local interests, to say nothing of the more extended view of the question to which we have just adverted, had been unjustifiably neglected by the Government and by the representative of the district in Council. The residents in the neighborhood, therefore, acting, we presume, on the principle tbat " Heaven helps those who help themselves," determined to club together and erect a foot bridge, which at the same-time should only be considered as a temporary convenience until a cart-bridge should be constructed. This footbridge is now nearly completed, being open for traffic, a portion of the railing only being unfinished. It is about 200 feet long, exclusive of the approaches at each end, by 4 feet wide, with a railing on each side of 4 by 3 on top, with two rails of 4 by 2 uuder. The roadway, which is 1 1 feet from the bed of the river is made of 1| inch planking, nailed on three supports, running the whole length of the bridge, and resting on three strong piers made of spars bolted together. We have invited especial attention to the construction of this bridge, not only because it, in some degree at least, supplies a desideratum which has been long and frequently most vexatiously felt in the neighborhood, and notably because it affords a proof of what may be done by united action in any district; but also because the bridge is of very novel construction, and considerable curiosity is felt as to how it will stand the freshes and floods to which the Wai-iti is so frequently subject. In addition to being an easy and safe road across the river at ordinary times

this bridge, if, as is confidently expected, it stand the floods uninjured, will keep open the traffic across the river at such seasons, and will euable passengers to cross from side to side, instead of waiting day after day until the waters shall have subsided. We must not conclude these remarks without stating that Mr Inspector Grove was the designer of the construction of the bridge, and that it has been built in accordance with his plans and directions, thus affording a practical corollary upon the eulogium passed upon that gentleman in the Provincial Council a few evenings ago during the consideration of the Eslimates.