STONE FOR BOROUGH ROADS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9304, 18 November 1901, Page 3

STONE FOR BOROUGH ROADS.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, —As the question of a source cf supply, within a small radius of the town, of road metal is of great economic interest to ratepayers of the town of Gisborne, I venture to address you on the subject. With due regard to the opinions of the members of the Borough Council, who vetoed a small experiment with the road metal to be obtained upon my property, I have to inform those gentlemen that the reports obtained by the Council m August, 1893, were to the effect that not only was the supply of road metal on my property of good quality, but there was also a very large quantity. I refer the public, including 'the City Fathers, to the editions of the Poverty Bay Herald of August 16 and August 30, 1893, from a perusal of the report and discussion on the * metal question appearing therein it must be clear that the metal on my property ought, m the interests of the town and district,, to receive^ a fair test. As a. guarantee of my faith m the material, I hereby make, the feUow4ftj offer:— '* Let. the Council procure ten loads or 15 yards of road metal from my property and put it on any part of the Borough roads, when, if, m the opinion of Mr King the harbor engineer, after a reasonable use, the material from my property does not compare favorably with the Patutahi metal, I will refund the Council the cost it has been put to. In the year .1893 my metal was considered good enough, the only drawback being the state of the raids. This no longer exists, as, since then, upwards of £900 has been expended on the roads, which are now m much better condition. As this is a matter of very great interest to the ratepayers, especially m view of the proposed extension of the Borough boundaries, I have no hesitation m asking you to publish this offer.—l am, etc., D. DOUGLAS. Gisborne, Nov. 18, 1901.

The boiler tubes of a liner, if placed m a straight line, would reach- nearly ten miles, and the condense* tubes more than twenty-five miles. The total number of separate pieces of steel m the main structure of the ship is not less than 40,000. The latest production by Mr Bland Holt is "Hearts are Trumps," which was staged for the first time m Australasia at Melbourne on the 26th ult. The biograph plays an important part* in-this sensational play, which is by Cecil Raleigh, and was a Drury Lane success. Those usually well informed m matters political say that there will be no calls to the Legislative Council till after the General Election m December, 1902. la face of the fact that there have been several deaths this year, and that the strength of the? House is to be increased by six additional members, there must be several appointments when the next botch of Councillors is made. When the Representation Commissioners meet during the recess they will, m readjusting the boundaries, have to make provision for six additional members, of whom four will m all likelihood be allotted to the North Island and two to the South. The amending Representation Act of last session increased the number of European members ilrom seventy to seventy-six. At Alexandra (Otago) about a year ago (says the Bruce Herald) most people had visions of wealth, which made' them rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Now, however, the streets are, wickedly, reported to be paved with countless summonses for unpaid dredging calls. No one up there now believes that it is better to have boomed' and bust than ' never to have boomed at all. While firing at a mark on the banks of [ the Goulburu (Vie.), a young volunteer . named McLennan shot and mortally , wounded a man on the other side. A pathetic incident m the evidence of a witness was that he and McLennan, after the shot, heard moaning from across the Goulburn. Procuring a, boat they went over the river, and found O'Hagan, whe ' said, "I'm shot; who fired?" McLennan 5 replied, "I did." Wheireupon the wounded muu held out his hand to McLennan, " and taking his grasped it and said, "I forgive you." -

At the Auckland Fruit-growers' Confer* euce it -was reported that the following rates of freight from Auckland had been arranged:— Oisborne, 11s 6d;" Napier, 12s 6d; Wellington, 12s 6d ; Lyttelton, 12s 6d (transhipments 20s); Duuedin, 12s 6d (transhipments 20s); Bluft', 12s 6d (transhipments 20s) ; Akaroa, 22s 6d ; Tiniaru, 15s (transhipments 255) ; Oamaru, 15s (transhipments 255) ; Blenheim, 22s 6d ; Picton, 15s (transhipment 22s 6d) ; kelson, 15s ; Weetport, 15s (traoshipmen*s 255) ; Greymouth (direct), 33s 6d via Wellington or Westport; New Plymouth, 10s; Foxton, 22s 6d ; Patea, 255: Wanganui, 22s 6d.