AUCKLAND ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11537, 23 November 1900, Page 3

AUCKLAND ROADS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln your issue of last Friday I notice under the heading Auckland City Council a paragraph headed "Road Metalling Extraordinary," reporting a discussion which tooK place at the Council meeting on the manner in which our streets are maintained and tn* size of tho road metal being spread, etc., etc. Now, it appears to me that an enormous amount of ignorance and incapacity was displayed by both Mayor and councillors in this discussion, as reported. In the first place, they allow themselves to ho swayed by a letter written to them by the secretary of the Auckland Cycle Roads League, who has no belter credentials as to road-making, presumably, but that he can rido a bicycle on a smooth road (footpaths preferred), and without due inquiry proceed to condemn all their officers connected with tho road repairing, forgetting in their now-found zeal that the present disgraceful state of the city roads is caused by the parsimonious system which lias existed for the last two years in our Council affairs, and which has naturally resulted in the streets being starved, until they aro actually worn down to tho " pitching which originally formed the foundation of the road. Now, with regard to tho size of the metal. All competent authorities in Auckland, past and present, agree that metal broken to pass a ring is the best for our roads, having in view the material available here for roadmaking, which, when broken to a small©? gauge than 2£in maximum, is useless for macadamising. I would like to ask, purely for information of ratepayers, is it not i fact that our Mayor some time since was interviewed by the stonebreakers at Mourn Eden, who threatened to strike, and that he gave a concession of 3d per yard, and arranged with them that tho metal they broke would be accepted and paid for by tho City Council if it passed through a 3in ring? Further, is it not a fact that the Council pay a. man to overlook tho stonebroakers at Mount Eden, and that his sole duties ore to see that they break the metal to pass a 3in ring, as per agrocment betweon the Mayor and stonebreakers? Now, what do we find tho Mayor doing? - blandly stating that 2in metal is what should v bo used for our streets, and ho backs this assertion up on what? Why, forsooth, a report from some municipality in the Old Country, where tho city engineer reports to hie Council that 2in metal is the best for use with them. But did it never dawn on , the sapient mind of our Mayor that circumstances and materials alter cases, and that granite is not scoria? Now, it seems the councillors are making a dead set at tho only independent officer connected with tho engineer's department left, under the present regime, a man who, lor the last 18 years in the employ of the Council, has studied the question of road-making in our city, and is undoubtedly competent, md does know how and with what material «« make our roads. But the position is this: This officer has not been allowed to incur thft necessary expenditure to properly maintain tho roads. The Council's policy, as pursued for the last two years, is responsible for tho disgraceful state of our streets, and to get out of the difficulty they must find a scapegoat for their own shortsightedness and their unwarrantable interference in matters they . are totally unfitted to form a judgment upon, by " going for" the one independent and competent servant left among the Council officials, the rest having been reduced i<s automatons, moved and governed by sapient councillors.

I further notice mention made by some councillors of " the contractor" who supplies big metal. This is only throwing dust it* the eyes of the ratepayers. Councillors know or ought to know, there is no such contract or contractor. The fact is they arc glad to get metal where and when they can. They have to buy in an open market, and their present demand (though parsimonious management) is so great that they have to tako what they can get. I think I have said enough to show tho nttor incompetency of our City Council, as at present managed, to give ratepayers anything like valuo for their money. Those who should bo responsible officers of the Council at the present time aro mere automatons, without a soul to call their own;' nevertheless, when a breakdown occurs in this unbusinesslike business arrangement a scapegoat must bo found to divert the blame from those who should justly bear it, viz., tho Mayor and councillors.—l am, etc., PiATEf-A