The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1901.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 8074, 19 March 1901, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1901.

Thb memorandu'miad bet-wean the Railway ! Department's champion Mr M'Lean and I the Oamaru Municipal Council, with which ' lire opening of the new Oamaru railway ' station has been signalised, is .still proceed- : ing vigorously. The battle royal is about ; the piece of roadway irontwg the station which Mr M'Lean engineered, and which the Council declines to take over unless it be made solid and effective in accordance with its ideas. The Council's attitude implies a censure of Mr M'Lean's roadmaking methods which must, from, the official standpoint, if possible, be fought to the vanishing point. This 1 is the only rational interpretation of Mr M'Xean's persistency in trying to force his alleged piece of roadmaking on the Council. He never would have written his last memorandum to the Council if he had not felt that whatever might be the character of his work he must to the last insist upon the Council's recognition of its excellence, so that his professional reputation might be preserved. His earlier efforts at hectoring were not by any means masterpieces of convincing logic, but his last it would be difficult to describe. He, in effect, tells the Council that it ought to take over the piece of artificial riverbed because at one .time it had been proposed to construct the new railway station so as not to interfere with Humber street, in which case the Depart- , ment would have done nothing towards ' putting the street in its present condition, and adds that the Department thought that the fact of the street having been diverted so as to improve the approach to the station ought not to weigh with the Council in demanding an unreasonable outlay. Then, because the Department changed its original wise intention not to interfere with Humber street, and did interfere with it- so as to put it in its "present condition," the Council ought to submit, take it over and improve its present condition at its own cost. We remind Mr M'Lean that nobobdy here asked the Department to cut- up our streets and place the station in such a position as to necessitate the const-ruction of a thoroughfare in zts vicinity of superior appearance and of great utility, so that the Department might nob cause anything to be done to the discredit of the colony or to its own inconvenience. Nor did the Council request the Department to hamper it with a heavy expenditure on the streets which connect with the artistic piece of roadway constructed by the Department. In, short, nobody asked that Humber street in the •vicinity of the station should be so mutilated as to_ resemble a rockery. This-.being the cas6, the responsibility for the "present condition" of the locality rests with the Department-, which, from first to last sought to act in accordance with its own interested without any consideration, or even thought, it would appear, for the -local body so seriously involved in the alterations whioh it caused to be made. The original what the Department > contemplated doing "at one time"—was no doubt, excellent; but that is not wiafc concerns us now. What ; has to-be considered is what it did, - Jfor .'

does the concluding sentence of Mr M'Leaa's memorandum signify, for the Council does not "demand an unreasonable outlay" because the street was "divertad so- as to improve the approach to the station," or because the street was diverted, whether to improve the approach to the station or not. The Council objects, not to the diversion of the street, but to the inferior quality of the roadwork which characterises that diversion. It is nothing short of mean of the Department to persist in seeking to impose on the Council a duty, with its consequent financial responsibility, which the Department has itself a. right to perform. The Council deserves quite diflerent treatment, for it has carried out admirably those improvements which the Department's aL teration necessitated, though the task has drained it of resources which were intended for other purposes. The Department had better at once realise that the Council will not take over the piece of road in its "present condition," and set to work to do what is necessary to make it creditable to the Department' and of real public utility. That is all the Council insists upon, and we are inclined to believe that the Department in its saner moments will recognise that the work when taken over by the Council should be in the condition in which the Council would be expected to maintain it.