THE CASTLEPOINT AND MUNGAPAKEHA ROAD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 311, 8 November 1879, Page 2

THE CASTLEPOINT AND MUNGAPAKEHA ROAD.

To the Editor of the VVairarapa Daily,

Sir—Noticing tenders are called for metalling several small portions (twenty chains in toto) of the Castlepoint road, I am led to think whether this is a wise step on the part of the Highway Board if all circumstances are -taken into account At present the road is so good (thanks to Providence having ordained and given us fine weather) that a heavv Wilson can with little or no difficulty take from two and a-nalf to three tons along it. The Mungapakeha road, on the other hand, is quite impassable for wheel traffic of any description, Now, it certainly seems impolitic for the Board to spend almost the flholo of what litt .e money it possesses on the passable line of road and do nothing to the impassable one. With respect to the metalling, a few ideas present themselves. Some few weeks back tenders weie called for 40 chains of metalline on the Castlepoint road. Mr Stillborn 1 ! offer of £3lßs, being considered too hl>h was not accepted. Will a smaller quantity be done at a less rate per chain 1 I should imagine not. It invariably happens that the smaller the amount of work to be executed the greater the price paid in

— w, proportion. Labor, also, is scarcer just now than it will bo hereafter, teams being employed hauling wool, etc., and men generally getting plenty of work at remunerative wages on the various stations. Tenders for these small detached portions of work are likely to cost 20s per chain more than the 40 chains originally tendered for. Should the Board Bee fit to have another 20 chains metalled in a fegflk months time there will be another smaH@ik •job to be done at possibly a very higlr®*® rate, and instead of the 40 chaim originally tendered for being done for a sum of £lB6 (L3lßs per chain), the cost most probably will be about L 196. Would not this metalling, therefore, he better let alone until say March, 1880, and then, if funds will admit, the whole 40 chains completed] Labor could then be obtained at a much lower rate than now, and the work even then be done in ample time before the winter set in. In any case this road will be fit for traffic until the end of next April. The funds just now at the disposal of the Board would jAk; tainly benefit the district and thegpi.' ling public generally by being emended in making the Mungapakeha 70# fit for traffic, I should be only too glad to see the metalling done on the Castlepoint road, but knowing the Board is short of money (and if it was not) it seems only a prudent measure to relieve the most urgent and pressing want first,—l am, &c.,