The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1870.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1022, 11 January 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1870.

ia^"auu(; # to, top pressure. Tbo j7liuj| of the bjpid_>-e show a bed itulicaUi'l fiSiL'7 t«et bjnv v certain lwrt", but that 27 fbtib liv« lias l joeu ||||P#3t\ud the ptlea 'are driven tar J^tfusily, by each blow of {.he !!^ri{ger. .''lf a misfcakr 1 , an I m so mipoAnt a matter, liYis ocourel PM.V, w|ilti guarantee of safety have w'" 1 !!* ul>o °} ie ' l ' at iows ? Ocjrtainly, ybflijutl is justißed m declining tp-^'isf oisy undur sucli a state of things and take them, with total uucuuuerii. What should have been douu 'Ki-iirst, suQttld/rrJn-our'-ojnnion,; be duno now. Surely, iv n work which will cost some .£ ( J,O(X) before it is -li nished; atid the whale safety of which, -liitisii* depend o ; n the solidity of its fouudalions, it was not too much to have expected that those who undertook the preparation of the plans and s specifications sbptijd; y;hjiye;.had : tneVriver > bored^to ascertain at what depth a sufficiently fir m bottom could have been obtained, . < The •; . utmost possible expense which such a work would have, entailed,, would hav-j been 'from £i$ to \&&Q, fbr even a double set of borings, and the matter wouM have been definitely and satisfactorily settled. Yet this was not done, though we might have thought from the experience's of building the Nguruavyahia bridge —where iron cylinders sent from home had to be lengthened, at the Auckland foun. daries for j list the same reason— that provision by boring would have been made against any such mishap occurring m the case of the bridge at Hamilton. , . ..•■...■•,■ The Borough ' Council at any rate is perfectly justified: m demanding, as the principal party concerned iv the contract,' to know exactly' what is being done iv the matter and why it is done. It has a right to ask, s ould it feel dissatisfied with the course taken, that ample proof should bfc given that it is the right one. As it is,- they do not know even who formed the C )uncil of Eugineers who sanctioned aud approved the alteration m the plan. The whole matter will be gone into on Monday evening, aud as the Engineer employed by the Council will be present on that occasion, the explanations and conclusions come to will, we trust, bo satisfactory to all parties.

Equal ai\d exact justice to all men, 01 whatever Htat,e! J or persuasion', rcligioud or oolicical. " Hera shall tlio Pross tlio Pjsoi'Le's right luaintaiu, • ■ : : (Juawcd by i.utlroucf) aud cuibribcd by gain.- ■ • •■■•■■' i|..?

dojit; Lttlc'aii'xiefcy, aiicTuofc without reason, was caused ou Monday night lu«t, ia- .the Hamilton Borough Council,;, wheu« Gr Potter drew attention to a paragraph, which, since tlie previous meeting, had appeared m this jouriiiil, and had beeu copied into , tlie ' Herald,' stating that the piles driven by the contractor, 3a fee* iv jeugthj. according to specification, had nob been fouud long enough to meet a sufficient, I resistance to CHriV the supers' ruclure ! of the bridge, ainJ that a council of engineers bi'sd come to the code usicn tluiD tin: required resistance would lie met more easily and bettor: by increasing the number of piles than l>y eaMfag; longer ones to be used. A I th ' High t,!»e work is subsidised by the Government to the .extent of £3000 out of a possible total cost of £8000 or .£9OOO, iris after-nil the Borough which will have to pay the larger proportion,, and it, is pn the. Borough tliat tip cost of niain,tni.ntnsr tjje bridge or re-building will fall m the future, and, therefore, we can well mvlerstouid that the Council felt some little anxiety m the rn-itter, and that membera should eossicicr that they have been scarcely well used, m that they have beeu neither 'officially iulormed^ofior con* suited upon so io»portaut a matter. Whether the proposed plan of increasing ths number of piles by eight m- each- span of 100 feet will give as good and safe a resistance juj-'a lesser 'number of piles driven, upon a hard bottom is for engineers of course fco decide, but: there &V 6 two or three matters to bs' taken iwko consideration, m settling the questiott, which should hot be lost sight of Okg of- .these is whether or not the. driving more piles m the same space does not entail the risk of breaking up arid causing tbo disintegration of the river bed, aiid fchna tend to weaken the foundation ; ixad whether, as f he work proceeds from the enst bank of the river towards the w&st, the same difficulty 'will not still furfcfce*.' increase, till uofc eight, but twice' eisrlit additional pi'en will be required m a span of 100 feet, to atford the same resiscance of prossure. It must be remembered that thocay smtura- dip^ cousdeivibly m its passs:igt? from east to west, underneath thd river, avid will he fbnnd still lower tlnn where the piles are ftovy drivo i near the eastern bank. It is all vory well '0 say that Kn^ineora R}O«t decide these matters, and that all ii* e (3o»ncil and the bargesses have to do is to . pay for the work— but Eugineers' are not infallible, and that mistakes are sometimes made is fuliv proved by the fact that piles of 33 feet m j Je'ngth are specified, and such piles are found to be not long euoagix to g-ve a sufficient ros-