A DOUBTFUL BARGAIN.

Observer, Volume XXI, Issue 1195, 23 November 1901, Page 2

A DOUBTFUL BARGAIN.

Our Street Paving Contract.

THERE is an unwritten history of the street paving question, which, if related in plain language, would startle the people of Auckland. Of this, however, more anon. In the meantime, the decision tr» use asphalt cannot be considered in any way good business for the city. There is no convincing evidence yet that it is suitable to our conditions. Certainly, it will be very trying to our horse traffic, and even worse for tho heavier classes of wheeled traffic, while in other respects it cannot compare with tarred macadam or even wood blocking. On the scorj of economy and durability alone, proper macadam has strong claims to which no weight whatever has been given. •♦•♦•..#. Not th'i least objectionable feature of ilii> asphalt business is the annual liability it entails upon us for maintenance. Certainly, the contract is a good thing, for the Neufchatel Asphalt Company, which will draw a comfortable revenue for the next twenty years for keeping this asphalt in order, while eventually the city will lequiro to purchase its plant and take over the concern. To this liability we are committed even if the material, however successful elsewhere, should prove to be a failure in Auckland, and we should find it necessary- to re-pave our streets with something else. ••• .#..#. Again, the arrangement with the Electric Tramway Company ■_ to share tho cost is bad business. Though we recognise the necessity for giving the Tramway Company every assistance, yet this is going a step too far. We should have required tha Company to lay its tramways, and pave the stipulated distance on either side, andl then, when the conditions of the contract had. been complied with, we should have completed our part of the work. But to accept a partner-

■hip with the Company in thi« street paving, is practically to condone the penalties lor which, the Company may render itself liable, to say nothing; whatever of the other strong Objections the/ arrangement is open to. ■'-••• ••• ••• ' ' •. However, the tender is accepted, and it is late in tno doy now to protest. At the same tfme, looking at the conditions of climate and traffic in Auckland, and the other alternatives at our disposal, this asphalt paving is a bad business for tlji. city. On financial grounds alone, it is bad, for if the city had laid down its own asphalt, a great saving would have been made both on the work itself and on the subsequent maintenance. The whole business ought, however, to be a lesson to ratepayers to take a stronger interest in corporation administration, and to keep a sharp eye on the Counc'l where larire items of expenditure are involved.

ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH.