AFTER THE CHAMPAGNE

Observer, Volume XXIII, Issue 2, 27 September 1902, Page 2

AFTER THE CHAMPAGNE

Another Street Asphalting Proposal.

BECAUSE of a contemplated expenditure of £1,869 upon an infectious diseases hospital, the Mayor told the City CounsjJL the other night that increased rates we're necessary. And yet, when the champagne was flowing freely an hour later, he was listening affably to a proposal from the Neuchatel Asphalt Company's manager that the municipality should pay £6,000 for asphalting the Queen-street footpaths. Surely the one proposition was inconsistent with the other. If our finances are in such a bad way that further taxation is necessary, the least we can do is to adopt an economical method of asphalting the footpaths.

What is wrong with the asphalt which we have used for footpaths for so many years, the materials being at our very doors, and which can be easily and serviceably laid by the City Council's own workmen? The Neuchatel asphalt is very good, and makes a fine street, but there is absolutely no necessity for it being used for footpaths which must be torn up every time a gas or water connection is necessary. All this means additional subsequent expense if the Neuchatel asphalt is laid.

It is urged that the footpath offer is made at a substantially lower price than the street contract, which has just been finished, but this only emphasizes the fact still further that the city made a very bad bargain in the matter of price in the first instance. The Neuchatel Asphalt Company ha* done very well out of Auckland, and ought to be content. It is all very well to open champagne and present the Mayor with golden trinkets, but the ratepayers will require some stronger inducement than this to give the company £6000 for asphalting the side-walk in Queen-street, a work that can be done by local workmen with local material at less than half the cost. Especially so, too, when the Mayor is threatening the city with increased rates.