BOROUGH COUNCIL MATTERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12378, 11 February 1911, Page 7

BOROUGH COUNCIL MATTERS.

(Tt) the Editor of (he Herald.) Sir, —l regret that T xtiottld consider it necessary to write again complaining of tho incorrectness of tho reports of our municipal affaiiV but as it is impossible for your readers to gather tho real position of matters! from your reports, I consider it necessary to write. In the first place, you lfcive given a column and a half report regarding tho Engineer question, and only find space to the extent of one inch as to the nature of my complaint against the Engineer, which m no way conveys to your readers the real position. Upon tlie Engineer's report coming before the Council, which dealt with tho drainage <|uestiotl> I informed the Couitdit that there was a matter whioh 1 considered It was my duty to raeulioit, namely, that I had observed m tho press about half a column of matter showing that great difficulties wcro being, experienced m the carrying ont of the sewerage works m Stanley read. In consequence of this press report, I asked Mr Paterson, the Borough Engineer, and tho Town. Clerk to come with me, as I wished to see the difficulties that were referred to. We went to tho works, and uipon arrival there I noticed that the Engineer wan not <s&'rrying out the written and Verbal mstr'uc--. tions of Mr Marehattt, the Consulting Engineer, as to how* the digging •of ithe drains should be proceeded with, -which was by opening the lower end first m order to naturally drain the upper or higher grorindj-by natural drainages-pro-cess, thus avoiding a lot of pumping and the necessity of hca^yvtimbering 'the trenches. I asked Mr' Paterson why he' was not carrying out Mr Marchant'-s general instructions, and he replied that the upper,: portion of the drain was deeper than'the bottom outfall portion; therefore he had not opened the dfain fmm the bottom first. I told the Council that all the difficulty arose m about two chains of the upper portion. This portion had been dug out first without opening the bottom portion of the,drain to the Waikaiiae swamp, although the latter had been partly done, and the lower end, m consequence of the natural drainage, required no pumping, and was not timbered, and whilst the upper portion had to be heavily timbered and considerable expense incurred m pumping: besides where it was heavily timbered near the railway line the ground had caved m and a considerable portion of the timbering had to be left m the drain and covered m, and that some'cast-iron pipes had been used because of these difficulties, the necessity for which could hive been avoided had the drain been opened up from the bottom ifirst, as directed by Mr Marchant. I informed the Council that I had photos of the work which they could see if they desired, and which would explain matters^ As.the Engineer was not sure.as to the exact difference m depth of. the draip, I asked that he arrange for one of his assistants to take the necessary levels, so as to see what the difference there was. The appointment was made to do this at 2.30 tlu>t a|ternoon. I asked the Town Clerk to notify as many Councillors as he could to attend at that time to see the work for themselves. I attended .again m. the afternoon, a .little late, owing to having been detained by a deputation of Fire Insurance Companies'■',-, representatives. Crs Maynard and Hejpburn were there, as well as the Town 'Clerk and myself. We were in^ formed that Cr Collins and the Engineer had been there, but both had left. The Engineer's assistant, Mr Quinn, was present to take the levels, and he found that the upper drain was Ift 2in below the lower outfall drain. We asked the ganger, Mr Stevenson, who was m charge of the men, as td where he first struck water m the portion of the drain which gave him trouble. He stated that he first struck' water at 3ft 6in, and he had tb pump from that depth to lift Sin, which was the bottom of tho drain, thus showing that they had to pump water for a depth of 7ft^9in, instead of lft 2in, had Mr Merchant's instructions been carried out. Youi.n'eport'that; the EiYjinoer stated that the pumping of the job cost £5. What the Engineer did stttte, m reply to Cr Darton, was that tho oil "alone used m connection with tlio pumping cost £5. He was not asked tho\ total cost of thc . pumping, which, with other unnecessary items, would take a considerable isiim for a few chains of drain. While you have shown what questions wcro asked, by Cr Darton and the Engineer, you do not show tho question which I put to him,, which was this, "If you had opened the lower portion of the drain first into the ; WaiV kanae, would it naturally drain the upper portion of the'drain down to tho lft 2in level?" The Engineer replied it would. I stated that I wanted to know nothing further; I was satisfied with that reply, which proved' my contention. There are many: other inaccuracies m your report, but I will not refer to them, except to say that you have given the'fullest space to a lot of personal talk, .which, to my mind, should have never been spoken and much less printed. Personally I ignored this talk, and purposely, only «poke about the matter .m its abstract form. I venture to say, Mr Editor, if you found more space for the main questions and less space for insulting twaddle, it would be better for the Council and better for the borough. You have found considerable space for decrying the Consulting Engineer's estimates, but n you are very sparing with you'rr space when' ■ statements are mado "which tend to justify the Consulting Engineer's figures as against what I would term extravagant and wasteful supervision. In: this respect.l would point out that you did not find room for the full report ' which I placed' before the Council as regards one of the Consulting Engineer's j statements and his assistant engineer bearing on this question. As I regard this as a most important matter for: this borough, I would ask you, m fairness to both Mr Marchant and Mr Cuthbert, who were consulted m this matter, as well as for the benefit qf the,ratepayers that you will publish m full the report to; which T refer. I will conclude by saying what I stated at the last Council meeting, not once but^; several titties, and which yon do not think worth,publishing, that I personally have iost all confidence, m the way our. Borough. ('.Engineer is carrying on the work oi this town, and tjmt matters, are wrong,: not. m ono direction,' but m many, and if the present supervision goes on, it wilt sbo impossible t<V complete the various loan works within tho loan money provided, but 1 believe if we have a change and better supervision, nnd let all the work by contract, that the various works will 1 be carried out for the money, plus What has been lost m the, bad start .which has been made:—l-am, etc. W. DOUGLAS LYSNAR.; [While willingly affording Air Lysnar an opportunity of making any explanation he desires m reference to borough works, wo must take strong exception to his remarks questioning the fairness of our report, which was a strictly 1, impartial account of long, tedious, and *ft times inicdifying proceedings.]