The New Zealand Herald SPECTEMUR AGENDO. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 201, 5 July 1864, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald SPECTEMUR AGENDO.

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1864.

Give ovcry man thine car, but few thy voicc: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all, —To thine ownsclf be true ; And it must follow, jus the night day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Tim City ]3oavel lias advertised for a pen tieman to act as City .Engineer. The appointment is a most, important one. and it behoves Ihe Board to llirow aside all personal and parly t-onsideral ions and predilections and be guided by the one simple desire to put ■flic l'iolit man in 1 lie right place. But this cannot be done without talcing into account many and various considerations. AVe ace in a peculiar posit ion. We do not require the services of an Engineer to carry on and complete works according to designs already portedcil and agreed upon.

That might" he a comparatively easy task, to I'll Ili I which would not require the knowledge and ability which is absolutely essential tor the proper performance of the duties of a Oil v Engineer under present circumstances. "\Ve have a city without any large and comprehensive plan of sanitary measures. The new engineer ought, to he thoroughly competent to begin t/r novo, to take stock of our requirements, to carefully examine into the whole subject of sanitary works, under the guidance of a sound judgement, aided by special ediLt-al ion and practical experience, in the particular work he will be required to perform. He has a rapidly extending city given into his hands, and the problem he has to solve and advise the Board upon is. what will be the best, most economical and permanently useful system of surface drainage, of street formation, of sewers, and other works of a. like character. .Now if we only casta very cursory glance at tlu> present and prospective wanls of the city, and what are now immediate suburbs, but which must soon be included under City management, we shall at once see the folly of entrusting such large public works, on which so much depends, 1o persons who have no practical experience in the tonduding of such like works. AYe have already, from one cause or another, had bungling and botching enough. It is high time to put a stop to this; and to secure the service of a thoroughly competent Engineer, who is w ell able by his knowledge, his judgement, and his experience, at once to command the respect and coniidence of the Board. ~\Ve Ava-nt no apprentice to try experiments and to learn lessons of street drainage and sewering at our expense, we want one who has already well learnt those lessons and who can bring the iruits thereof to us.

There are probably many persons in the colonics who call themselves Civil Engineers who have no more real right to do so. than to call themselves Kniglds of the (iarter. It is probable that all who so write C.E. after their name are not members of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Those who are so, have had special training in their profession and know something about it. Those "who are not mav be competent to carry on certain works, but they lack that which is to a Civil Engineer what a medical diploma is to a surgeon or physician, a proof that they have some real ground for calling themselves by that name. A tolerable amount of information on subjects connected with some of the outlying domains, more or Jess connected with engineering works, will not be sulficient qualification in those who apply tor the situation of City Engineer. One of the members of the Board propounded the opinion that candidates should be required to produce working designs and drawings of works similar to those they will be called upon to design and execute should they receive tlie appointment they seek. This is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Beautiful plans and designs may be laid down on paper which, when carried out in practice may not be worth the cardboard on which they arc drawn. They may involve too large an expenditure, and they may not suit our requirements in each particular ; and no candidate is likely to take a survey of tlie cit v and then draw out plans for draining it and so forth, on the mere chance of obtaining an appointment worth only £400 a year. AV hat; the Board must: mainly rely upon arc, firstly, is the candidate a man who has been professionally educated, that is, is he a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers; and secondly, has he ever had charge of any sewerage and drainage work in any town either in the mother country or in the colonies, and if so, how did he succeed in that work. By adding these suggestions to that of Mr. Swanson, and acting upon them as far as possible, wo may hope to secure the services of a gentleman who will shortly lift us out of the slough of despond in which we now are, who will speedily change the aspect of our streets, who will make the City Board respected and valued, instead of being as it now is, a bveword among the inhabitants, for something very like mismanagement.

There is also another tiling that must be borne in mind, which has a direct bearinoupon the above remarks, and points to the same conclusion. There are various branches of civil engineering, winch are in fact dis- : ' ! - : md which require special practical knowledge. There is a division of labour in this, as in nil other professions. One doctor, for instance, has made the eye, or the ear, a special study ; another the lungs, and the internal organization of our bodies ; and though both have a general knowledge of the whole range of diseases and their method of yet the}' have particular and special information on that portion of the human frame to which tliev have devoted a large share of their attention. So in the profession under discussion. One civil engineer may have devoted his time principally to the study and construction of docks and harbours; another may have been engaged all his life in the designing and construction ot railways ; another may have been principally engaged in the construction of waterworks, sewerage, and other sanitary measures. Each of these will doubtless have a general knowledge of all these departments of their profession, but they will also have the greatest amount of knowledge 011 that particular department to which they have bestowed tlieir principal study and attention, and which they have been actively engaged in carrying on. That a very large expenditure will have to be made upon the city aud suburbs of Auckland is quite evident. Immunity from rate-paying is a tiling of the past. But the amount requisite to put this city into athorough state of cleanliness aud liealthfulness, though undoubtedly large, need not cause alarm, or . frighten us from setting about doing what is absolutely requisite for tliat purpose. To stave oft' the evil day is neither just to ourselves, nor just to posterity. London, embracing as it now does, what were once distinct cities, villages, and hamlets, was long content to either neglect the work of sanitary reform altogether, or to leave it in the hands of the various integers of which the metropolis is formed. But the evil grew to such an alarming height, that at last anew and central authority called the Board of "Works, and having power over the sewerage of the entire modern met ropolis, was called into existence, clothed with large power's, and with permission to borrow large sums of money. It is composed of delegates sent by the different vestries aud corporate bodies of the metropolis. The Board has power to borrow £-1,200,000. The Bank of England contracted for the loan at 3} per cent, per annum, the security being a rate of 3d. in the pound 011 the annual rateable value of property in the metropolis, with the guarantee of Her Majesty's Government. The Board has already contracted for 56 miles of sewers at an estimated cost of £1,5-14,000. One sewer is 1-J-i miles in length, more than twice the distance from Auckland to Oneliunga. The Outfall Reservoir, intended to receive the sewage of the northern area of the metropolis, extends over nearly eleven acres of land, is thirteen feet six inches deep, and is estimated to cost £170.000. The repayment of the vast amount which the Board is authorised to borrow, is provided for by a sinking fund, which is gradually to extinguish both principal and interest in Inrtv years. A large amount has been

; lreadv repaid. Tlie threat, object of the extensive works undertaken by tlie Board is not only to ensu'--; proper drainage for the vast city, lint also to divert tlie sewage from the Thames, so 11>at that river shall no longer be Ihe receptacle for the vast mass of filth carried daily inlo it by existing sewers. The wisdom of making our noble harbour the receptacle for the refuse from our city is more than questionable. • The water will lie poisoned, and our hot summer weather will cause exhalations to arise therefrom which will be most detrimental to health.

But to return to the question of expense, a 3rd rate is sewering modern London by giving it what may bo called large arterial severs. it appears that in nine English towns drainage works cost £-3 18s. Sd. per house, or ]2s. !)d. per head of the population. The cost of labour and materia] here "would large]}' add to the cost of such works in Auckland. But with this data tQ guide us, it would be no superhuman labour, lirsl to decide to what extent the present city boundaries are to he enlarged for the purpose of an amended act: then to take the number of houses erected within that area, and the rateable value of all land unbuilt upon within it, and then it will be easy to calculate how much a certain rate will produce, and how mu'-h, therefore, can 1"! borrowed on the security of that rate, both principal and interest being repaid in thirty or forty years. That the matter must be looked boldly in tlie face cannot be doubted ; that it will be far wiser, for us to do so at the earliest opportunity is' equally t rue ; and that one new engineer, who will have the designing and oversight of the whole system of city drainage aud , city engineering works, should bo no 'prentice hand or untried and inexperienced person, is of no less importance. The public, remembering that last summer's death rate was something like that experienced in cholera-stricken cities, will undoubtedly aid their representatives both in the City Boa,rd and in the Provincial Council, to rid the city of that stigma, and make her what she might become —a very healthy and very pleasant city.