COST OF METAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13258, 17 December 1913, Page 2

COST OF METAL.

(To the Editor of ihe Herald.) : Sir- - " 1 " a recent rtifttxber nf your paper Mr Lycr._.r mentions toy name more than once. 1 had hoped that he had grown nit of that bad -.habit, and would have overlooked his .boyish exuberance iiThis statements of fact had been correct. Ha says m a note, "Mr Paterson's estimate was 3s 10.8 d a yard for Gentle Aimje metal, which the present ßorough J Eti-' gmeer reports is costing -about lis, and this without depreciation." Now. I estimated the haulage only at 3s lOd, to which must be added quarrimg^charges 3s 9d on the old estimatti, or 7s 8d per yard, before a comparison can be struck with the present cost of lis, which also includes depreciation unless I have been misinformed. Now it is evident that one of two things -nag happened. Mr Lysnar has deliberately misrepresented the matter, or he has forgotten the small detail of quarrying at his famous Gentle Annie quarry. I prefer to take the latter view as I_haye no peusonal animus ' ag*___art_ Mr Lysnar, but it is by methods and statements -Uicft, ft these that tha public have been all along deceived. With reference to;: the hatbor,' -■ now tnat my name has been dragged .nto it VT?- v L d JU£!t fco sa y *» ft* People ot Gisborne. and district that- Mr _U_i Donald s. scheme appeals to me fro_n*toi engineering standpoint as the orie-saite course to adopt at tjiis,; stage when so many factors -are fully .extended m the solution of harbor engineering. Ships are growing larger and larger, materiSls ano. labor are increasing m price, and it *ould be unfair to use an estimate of four years ago from Mr Marchant. Both design and estimate would require" recasting to the tune probably of a cool

The railway on the north from T*tN / ranga « not going to. help the district "' by swelling the oversea commerce either m or out. Tokomaru and Wairoa will . deal their own vicinity products„as they do now, and Gisborne will have to d*- : pend on its own district to.pay ihterek on a harbor loan out- of all proportion to ■< the volume of probable business^Meate- , while Mr McDonald wants to make tbo* inner harbor more efficient, and has nnn i a , ce J ta^ P ortio » <* the £200 000 loan to do it with. I have seen the plans and proposals, and must affirm. ' without hesitation that they are tha/ best going. Gisborne did Inot trei.fr m* with that aweet reasonableness which fi» meted out to public .officers m otlifer < towns, nevertheless I cannot see 'good people m. a splendid district misled l^x man who has such a faulty memory *as * nar i and who seems to have *ucl» a facility for misunderstanding imports; f-*L ce * 3 , and stat ements of fact.-- Ybthfe ' faithfully, A. J. PATERSONY '