THE AUCKLAND AND DRURY RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1122, 19 June 1867, Page 6

THE AUCKLAND AND DRURY RAILWAY.

To tho Editor of the Ixew Zealakb Hep.ald. Sib,—Well, Mr. Editor, the proof of who was right and who was wrong has come at last! Tho umpiro on whose decision both yourself as tho denunciator of the railway works as so much lmnoy incompetently oxpended—and your cotemporary, as the champion of the engineers "all and sundry" concerned, agreed should decide between you has spoken at last. Mr. Ogilvie's report on the Railway is now before tlie public, and wo havo tho opinions of a competent business man on Auckland's great public work, " tho Knilway job." There is no blinking the facts of the case now. All that you condemned as faulty has been proved to be so. Curves, gradients, tunnels, drainage, brickwork, the workmanship, the mortar, tho foundations, tho designs, culverts, <tc., are alike condemned, and evon of tho sleepers it is said " they are quite unfit for t'lo purposo." Now sir, theso are all matters which you pointed out at the timo, but I am not writing to prove you r ight, and your opponents wrong, but to put a few remarks before the general public that I think should receive duo consideration at the present moment. First, then! would ask who have we to blame for these mistakes—tho engineers employedin inir the line, the Railway Commissioner?, or the then Superintendent. But, sir, supposing all those gentlemen knew nothing whatever of what thci were doing, had not tlie Province in its employment, at the time thqso works were going on", an Engirj er-iu-Chief engaged at a high salary? Undoubtedly, it was this gentleman's duty to have pointed out tho errors in engineering, the faults of workmanship, and which have cost the Province a useless expenditure of £11? ,000. Ho could not but have seen theui. Indeed, there was no possibility for their escaping his notice, and yet, as far us I can learn, he never inteifesed to warn the Superintendent of tho useless expense into which the Province was being plunged. He quietly sat by and watched the waste of public money without lifting his voice to check our loss and ruin. And yet this gentleman was styled Kngineer-in-Chief of the Province, and received a salary from the Province of £800 per annum.—Yours, vc., Parnell, June? 18tbj 1867» Co^thactob.