Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1907. A LONG-SUFFERING COMMUNITY. THE NORMANBY BRIDGE MUDDLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 27 July 1907, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1907. A LONG-SUFFERING COMMUNITY. THE NORMANBY BRIDGE MUDDLE.

IN the past there were various reasons, mainly of the ill-informed "cheap tripper" order, . for terming Nelson "Sleepy Hollow." Among them perhaps the most cogent were those that imputed to the people an apathy and listlessness while their rights were being j,vl aside, and while their "loaves and fishes" and privileges were being cleverly filched by others. Then, too, there was, and to some extent is, the calm and resigned acceptance of the axiom that "whatever is, is right." There are in some of the rules and regulations of public bodies and societies in Nelson provisions and loopholes that would make of the city a Tom Tiddler's ground for the operations of committee -packing and close-guilding. Chances thus afforded are 'taken advantage of very mildly, it is true, but then, few care to raise a protest even were it ; otherwise. It is the accepted order; "Che sara sara," says the local fatalist, and we are all jolly good fellows and the ablest in creation, especially when we are dead or about (to go away. .».••#■# .. It is tills spirit of fatalism and resigned acceptance of things as they ire- that probably brings forth only a sporadic letter of protest to the newspaper'instead.of something- like a riot in the Wood district between Hardy and F'alifax-sts. as a demonstration against the long-continued deadlock in vehicle traffic at- the locality where onde stood ■-• -•• ■: ■AfAAA\':,,-.y

i\'WTfia-iby Bridge. The iYiccmveme-ice suffered by a very large section of t,he residents in the district is Vertf indeed. But tlie moi** aspect of the matter H thai the main artery of vehM* Wattic between tho city, Suburban North and beyond is and has 00^. closed for several month* Without a sign of the bridge lAHUg renewed. It is beyond que-ttoft, too, that property value* ito the immediate locality of the Iri'ver, and in Tasman, Milton, and Halifax-streets are pTactical'ly ; . at , a standstill, solely .becaWe', in tlM*s, the second half of tht> fit-sfc- 'decade of the Twentieth 6e>'»tiA"y, there is neither cart bridge fibr ford at the Bridge-street crossing of the river. When it is realised that this is the main route between the city arid a populous rpsideHtiijl outskirt, an important . sup'tirb, arid the usual coach road io Marlborough, it will be admitted lhat it is hardly possible to condemri too severely the municipal conditions that We Permitted such a state of affairs to continue indefinitely, trom the blunder perpetrated when the s yld bridge was undecked before provision for an immediate ne*' orte was made; to the blundering oV*r the letting of the new coWtrac*. ttt a tenderer who has delayed fereatly in beginning the worß, the transactions vi connection with Normanby Bridge have furnished a series of ipsUnces ol "How not to do it," unique in municipal records. • • • • * In the first place, the wisdom of hay- ! ing put the old bridge out of commission is doubtful. Having once permitted that, it was incumbent on the Council to make immediate provision Cor iv.« orcein of a new bridge. But, owing to differences of opinion, the advice of a thousand and one amateur engineers, the bellowings and quarrels ot ward politicians, and the sage counsel of " the man in the street," we, a presumably modern community, have had for several months a few crazy planks as the only means of access over the most important ! river crossing in the city. Months before the last City Council election, now becoming a tale that is told, the bridge « was undecked and left with a homemade kind of footpath as the sole means of communication from bank to bank. To-day, the position is practically unaltered, and apparently it is likely to remain so for some months yet to come. The deadlock was left to the new Council by the old one as a legacy. But how has the new Council, with its new blood and promises of modern procedure, itself done? It considered tenders for a new bridge, and accepted one under a misconception of the identity of i the tenderer! The circumstances reI mind one of the famous and traditional i MacTavish contract in Otago. When j the Council discovered that it did not ■ know the tenderer, it set about to cancel the contract. First one legal adviser ! told Councillors that they could so cancel the contract. Then another legal adviser told them that they couldn't. Last-given advice always being the best, the contract was duly signed, and it was to be presumed that the long-de-layed work of bridge reconstruction would start immediately. But it is now over two months since the contract was signed' and sealed, and beyond "something temporary with a teapot" done by the Council workmen to the understructure, not a hand's turn has been attempted by either Council or contractor, j Apparently there is nothing for it but ' to wait the contractor's pleasure, as he ) has the Council under the whip. The contract time is five months, and till t that expires the city is powerless. — in 3 the hands of an Auckland tenderer who apparently has not seen the job he I has undertaken since his tender was ac- . cepted. j In the circumstances matters must remain as they are. The contractor may be sending for patent self-acting anucapnic I lock joint girders from Timbuctoo ; or he may be awaiting the invention of a new kind of ferro-concrete that may be grown in pots ; or he may be studying up the latest application of wireless telegraphy to bridge-building with the laudable object of giving us the benefit of his researches. All we know is that about two months of the five months contract period has gone by without a bolt having been driven. The question 1 for the City Council to consider is whether there should not be an immediate and definite understanding with the contractor as to when he intends to start work. Furthermore, he should be :' distinctly told that when the contract 1 ' time is up he will be held rigidly to the I terms and made to pay the penalty of ' delay to the utmost farthing. There is absolutely no excuse for the contractor leaving tho Council in the dark as to his intentions as he has done. He may be able to complete his job satisfactorily ill the next three months if he ever make a start. If so, well and good. But, if at the end of the contract period the bridge be not ready to be handed over to the Council, then it is hoped the Council will do its duty to the public as a firm and businesslike body, and insist on the penalties being paid by the contractor or his bondsmen. The city has stood enough nonsense with the undecking of Normanby Bridge, and it will stand no more. The public will keep the Council's backbone in its place should it be necessary to claim the penalty on delay from the contractor. It is hoped that these comments will meet the contractor's eye in order that he may know what to expect. The rebuilding of the bridge should have been accomplished long ago, and for this he is not to blame. But so far as he is concerned he should have been half through his job by now instead of not yet even at the commencement of it. If he was not ready to go on he should not have tendered. Hence, if at the end of the next three months he comes asking for extension of time, he must not be surprised if he is met by opposition, and even, stern refusal.